S 405 
■ F2 
*opy 1 



b arm 
Science 



By 

JOSEPH E. WING 

Prof. P. G. HOLDEN 

WALDO F. BROWN 

Hon. W. M. HAYS 

Prof. THOMAS SHAW 

Prof. CLINTON D. SMITH 

Prof. CYRIL G. HOPKINS 

Prof. FRED R. CRANE 




International Harvester Company 

of America 

(Incorporated) 

Chicago, U. S. A. 



Farm 






Science 



By 



JOSEPH E. WING 

Expert Agriculturist. Recog- 
nized authority on Genera! Agri- 
culture, Mechanicsburg, Ohio 

P. G. HOLDEN 

Vice Dean and Professor of Ag- 
ronomy, Iowa Agricultural Col- 
lege, Ames, Iowa 

WALDO F. BROWN 

Farm Specialist. Author of Nu- 
merous Agricultural Works, 
Oxford, Ohio 

HON. W. M. HAYS 

Assistant Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, Washington, D. C. 

T HOMAS SHAW 

Late of Minnesota Experiment 
Station, St. Anthony, Minnesota 

CLINTON D. SMITH 

Director of Michigan Experi- 
ment Station, Agricultural Col- 
lege, Michigan 

CYRIL G. HOPKINS 

Professor Agronomy and Chem- 
istry, Illinois College of Agricul- 
ture, Champaign, Illinois 

FRED R. CRANE 

Professor of Farm Mechanics, 
Illinois College of Agriculture, 
Champaign, Illinois 



Copyright, 1906 

International Harvester Company 
of America 

(Incorporated) 

Chicago, U. S . A. 



■ 



r a 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

MAY 4 1906 

4 Copyright Entry . 

C/ASS Cc' XXc. No, 
/UiljLC 6 

' COPY B. 



Contents 

Introductory 

Part I 

Alfalfa Culture in America 5 

By Joseph E. Wing, Expert Agriculturist, 
Recognized Authority on General Agricul- 
ture, Mechanicsburg, Ohio 

Part II 

Modern Corn Culture 21 

By P. G. Holden, Vice Dean and Professor 
of Agronomy, Iowa Agricultural College, 
Ames, Iowa 

Part III 

Best Methods in Seeding 39 

By Waldo F. Brown, Farm Specialist. Au- 
thor of Numerous Agricultural Works, 
Oxford, Ohio 

Part IV 

Small Grain Growing 53 

By Hon. W. M. Hays, Assistant Secretary 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Part V 

Profitable Hay Making 69 

By Prof. Thomas Shaw, late of Minnesota 
Experiment Station, St. Anthony , Minnesota 

Part VI 

Up-To-Date Dairying 87 

By Clinton D. Smith, Director of Michigan 
Experiment Station, Agricultural College, 
Michigan 

Part VII •«.: 

Increasing Fertility '•" 101 

By Cyril G. Hopkins, Professor of Agron- 
omy and Chemistry, Illinois College of 
Agriculture, Champaign, Illinois 

Part VIII 

Power on the Farm 115 

By Fred R. Crane, Professor of Farm 
Mechanics, Illinois College of Agriculture, 
Champaign, Illinois 



Introductory 




'ARM SCIENCE" has been 
compiled for the particular pur- 
pose of assisting American agri- 
culturists in the work of farm 
management. With this end in 
view the highest -authorities in 
their respective fields of research 
were asked to prepare special ar- 
ticles setting forth the results of 
extended experiments involving every important oper- 
ation on the farm. The subjects treated cover a wide 
range of thought, and deal with every branch and 
phase of modern agriculture. 

Marvelous as have been the achievements in other 
fields of human activity, the greatest forward strides 
in the United States have been made in agriculture. 
Particularly was this true during the last half century. 
The primitive implements and methods of pre-historic 
times were retained through the centuries of man's 
strenuous struggle to master the forces of nature. 
From the reaping hook and cradle to the modern self- 
binder is a far cry, but it has all been accomplished 
within the memory of men now living. As recently 
as 1845 the United States did not produce enough 
breadstuffs to supply the needs of home consumption. 
Now this country, with a population increased many 
fold, is the largest exporter of breadstuffs and other 
food products, the yield from American farms rival- 
ing the production of all Europe. 

The wonderful progress made in modern Ameri- 
can agriculture is due in large part to our unlimited 
agricultural resources, and to the intelligence of the 
American farmer who has been materially assisted in 
his work by the inventors who recognized the neces- 
sity of improved methods on the farm, and have sup- 
plied machines and implements to lighten labor and 
transform drudgery into a pleasurable pastime. 

If a careful perusal of " Farm Science " suggests 
any method of improving the quality or yield of crops, 
any method of making the dairy more profitable, or 
any method of securing larger results with less work, 
trie purpose of this book will have been fulfilled. 

International Harvester Company 
of America 

April I, igo6. (incorporated) Chicago, U. S. A. 



Alfalfa Culture in America 

EARLY HISTORY— DISTRIBUTION AND ADAPTATION- 
PROFITABLENESS OF ALFALFA. 



By Jos. E. Wing 




HERE it Came from — So many centuries ago that 
history does not record, the alfalfa plant was adopted 
into the family of mankind. It was grown long be- 
fore the days of the Romans, and fed to the saddle 
horses of the desert. It was in esteem during Ro- 
man times, and old Roman books on agriculture 
tell how to sow it and how to till it and how to 
nourish it ; and how, when it is grown, it "is good 
for all manner of famished beasts whatever." Doubt- 
less the chariot horses that Ben Hur drove were fed 
on alfalfa hay. From that day to this it has been a 
plant held in high esteem wherever the best agricul- 
ture has been practised, especially in dry and warm climates where 
irrigation is practised. 

Introduction into America — The introduction of alfalfa into 
America proceeded from two sources. The English settlers in Vir- 
ginia and the Atlantic colonists brought it with them, and at one 
time many years ago it was in repute, under the name of "lucerne," 
in New York, parts of New England and Virginia. It was recog- 
nized as having remarkable value, yet as acting strangely under 
cultivation, responding finely for one man, refusing to grow for 
another, growing beautifully in one field, refusing to grow in an 
adjacent one. It failed to make much seed, and eventually its 
culture died out almost entirely in the Atlantic region. 

Introduction to the Pacific Coast Region. — The Spanish people 
brought alfalfa to Chili, Mexico, Peru and in a small way to south- 
ern California. It thrived in the dry, warm valleys in soils rich in 
mineral elements and well watered by irrigation. Its influence was 
unfelt in the United States until the settlement of California. The 
earlier settler sought only gold, but soon there appeared another 
class who sought by tillage of the soil to gain wealth by feeding the 
gold hunters. Thus there grew up a sort of pioneer farming in 
California. One of the earlier stockmen there, Henry Miller, killed 
cattle in San Francisco. In order to have always at hand a supply 
of available beef steaks, he bought land in the San Joaquin valley, 
and tried to grow forage crops there. In 1873 he began to make 
serious attempts to grow alfalfa, importing the seed from Chili. It 
was a plant that many voyagers from eastern America had noticed 
growing luxuriantly on the plains of South America. Henry Miller 
succeeded in making his alfalfa grow. He fed it to cattle, and with 
the profits bought more land to sow more alfalfa. When the writer 
some years ago visited the ranches of Lux and Miller he found 
feeding there on green alfalfa more than a hundred thousand cattle, 
with very many sheep. Thus had the alfalfa plant heaped up wealth 



6 FARM SCIENCE. 



for these far sighted ranchers ! Doubtless there were other men 
experimenting with alfalfa growing in California as early as this 
or perhaps earlier, but Henry Miller is perhaps the first man to 
exploit the plant on a large scale. 

From California the plant spread eastward to Utah, to Colorado, 
to Idaho and Montana, to Kansas, Nebraska and, later, to Ohio, 
Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, New York ; and now in these blessed 
days of prosperity it has gone to nearly every State in the Union, 
is grown in Canada, in Alberta, and many of the islands of the sea. 

Alfalfa Growing in its Infancy — And yet, with all its spread, 
alfalfa growing has only just begun in the Eastern States. One 
farmer in ten in favored regions is growing it, and he is growing 
only half or maybe a tenth of what he will some day. The other 
nine farmers will learn — they must — or else be crowded out by 
their more favored competitors. It was held for a long time that 
alfalfa growing must be confined to certain climatic belts. Now 
it is known that it thrives, so far as climate is concerned, almost 
equally well from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the 
Gulf. Certainly, it gives more crops in warm climates where it has 
a longer growing season, but any part of America, saving the high 
mountain plateaus, is warm enough for two crops a year. 

Later it was thought that only certain soils would grow alfalfa. 
Now it is known that while it prefers rich, loose limestone soils, 
it will grow luxuriantly on strong, stiff, limestone clays, once they 
are made dry with tiles and fed with manure. It grows on sand, 
when the sand is made rich. It grows away from limestone, when 
the land has been sweetened with lime. In truth there is hardly 
a class of soils in the Union that is not now growing alfalfa, under 
enthusiastic culturists, who persist in giving the conditions that it 
needs and deserves. 

Soils Best Suited to Alfalfa — -While it is true that alfalfa may 
be grown by devoted enthusiasts anywhere, yet it has affinity for 
certain types of soils, and is most easily grown thereon. These 
soils are deep, pervious to air and water, well stored with mineral 
elements, and somewhat alkaline in their nature. Thus alfalfa 
revels in the arid West, when water is supplied, because there has 
never been any leaching of mineral fertility, and the land is very 
rich in potash, phosphorus and lime. This alkalinity favors the 
growth and development of the bacteria that grow upon alfalfa root- 
lets and make the plants thrive. In the more eastern sections, 
along the Missouri river, there are great areas of a peculiar whitish 
soil called the Loess deposits. These soils are the result of wind 
deposit, made many centuries ago when the land was desert. On 
these very deep and fairly fertile Loess soils alfalfa revels, its 
roots penetrating to very great depths, sometimes as far as thirty 
feet. 

Yet farther to the eastward are the prairies of Towa and Illinois, 
black with stored humus and rich in plant food. On these prairies 
alfalfa does not naturally succeed very well. This is owing in part to 
a lack of drainage ; in some instances, through the decay of too much 
vegetable matter, there is acidity in these black soils. In many 
other cases there is some difficulty in establishing bacterial energy, 
and the reason for that is unknown. However, the remedy has 
been found to be applications of barn yard manure, which works like 
magic on these black prairie soils, and when coupled with tile 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA. 



underdraining, where it is needed, alfalfa is found to grow with 
remarkable vigor and profit on the black corn soils of Iowa and 
Illinois. The reader if he dwells in this land should consult the 
bulletins of the Iowa and Illinois Experiment Stations for help to 
make his alfalfa surely grow. 

Soils on which it is Difficult to Grow Alfalfa It is more 

difficult to grow alfalfa on some soils than others, and on some of 
them it is not wise to make the attempt. First, any soil that is not 
more than two and one-half feet above the water line is too shallow 
for continual alfalfa growth. It needs a depth of at least three feet 
to water, and if the distance is even greater all the better. In lay- 
ing tile underdrains for a foundation to an alfalfa field seek, then, 
to get the level of the water line down at least three or four feet. 

On peaty soils with little clay or sound earth within them it is 
not often that alfalfa will thrive. There are some exceptions to 
this rule, though they are not well understood. 

On nearly barren sands it is doubtful if it is worth while trying 
to establish alfalfa fields. They must be continually fed in order to 
produce this forage, so rich in mineral elements, and it must be 
remembered that these mineral elements must come from the soil. 

days. — While the most luxuriant growth of alfalfa is usually 
from a porous soil, a loam or gravelly alluvium, yet clays drained 
and stored with vegetable matter are producing some of the best 
growths of alfalfa in the United States. This is especially true of 
strong, tough limestone clays that, when in their natural state, hold 
water "like a jug," but when underdrained and well manured be- 
come more open and pervious to both air and moisture. On such 
clays alfalfa revels, and when plowed up and other crops are planted 
on the land it is astonishing to see with what vigor they grow, 
revealing plainly the very great benefit that the alfalfa has been 
to the soil, both by adding nitrogen through the decay of its 
leaves and roots, and by bringing up mineral matters from the sub- 
soil, and by decaying and leaving air and water passages through 
the clay, always before too dense to permit these helpful agents 
to work their will. And when alfalfa is sown again upon these 
clays after one or two years of grain or hoed crops, manure being 
scattered over the land in the interval, it is found that the alfalfa 
responds wonderfully and yields better than it did after its first 
seeding. 

Advantages of the Alfalfa Crop — What, briefly, are the ad- 
vantages of the alfalfa plant over other forage crops? First, that it 
roots so deep in the soil. It is safe to say that alfalfa roots pene- 
trate as deep as there is any soil. If the soil is three feet deep, the 
roots will penetrate three feet. If the soil is ten feet deep, the roots 
will go down ten feet. And if the soil is thirty feet deep, the roots 
will go down thirty feet. Thus the whole soil is in use. 

The Whole Season — Next remember that the plant uses the 
whole of the growing season, and it is the one crop that the farmer 
grows that does this. It is very hardy and does not much mind 
cold. As soon in Spring as the sun has slightly warmed the earth 
the alfalfa is up and is growing. It does not mind light frosts, but 
keeps right on growing. Soon after the corn is .planted the alfalfa 
is ready to cut, by the first of June in most of the region of the 



8 FARM SCIENCE. 



Corn Belt, earlier in the South, and not much later anywhere. 
Thus the soil has yielded one crop almost before the corn plant has 
begun to take hold at all. 

Next consider what happens when you cut off that first cutting. 
It should be taken away as soon as little buds appear on the lower 
part of the stems, showing that a new growth is ready to start up. 
At this time the plant will be partly in bloom and the leaves 
dropping from the larger stems. Then is the time to cut it down 
and make it into hay. And the hay making must proceed rapidly, 
for soon after this first crop is laid low these buds start into action, 
and in about fifteen minutes after the mover has passed over the 
field there is a second crop under way. This makes it needful to 
get the crop off the field promptly and let the next one come on. 
In thirty days from the time it is cut there stands a second crop 
ready for the mower. And after that in thirty-five or forty days 
there is yet a third crop ready. And if it is taken off on time there 
is the fourth cutting. Much of the yield of these later cuttings 
depends of course upon the presence of moisture in the soil, but it is 
sure that the alfalfa will use all of the moisture from rainfall, and 




CHAMPION MOWER IN ALFALFA FIELD. 

if irrigation is possible it will use a very large amount of irriga- 
tion water. Thus it uses to the best advantage all of the soil, all 
of the season from early Spring till late Fall, and all of the soil 
moisture. Of no other crop can this be said. 

Value of the Resultant Crop — The best of all is that the forage 
that the alfalfa plant produces is the richest and most palatable 
that the farmer can grow. The alfalfa plant, cut at the right time 
and rightly cured, is very rich in protein. What is protein ? It is 
what makes the red flesh and red blood of the animal. It is wh it 
makes nerve and brain and vital process. Alfalfa is rich in bone. 
It is the best feed for the baby on the farm, for the baby colt, ths 
baby calf, the baby lamb, pig and chick. It is good for the baby 
because the baby must have protein to build his little body. And 
as it is best for the baby so it is best for the baby's mother. It 
makes her full of milk and restores her tissues. It builds the un- 
born young within her, and after its birth it fills her with milk to 
make the baby grow. 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA. 9 



For Working Horses — There is no one thing so good as alfalfa 
for the working horse. It builds his wasting muscles, it keeps him 
strong and healthy. He needs much less grain when he can have 
alfalfa hay. And he is fuller of life and spirit than when fed upon 
any other hay. It is only necessary to remember that this hay 
should be fairly mature when it is cut, and well cured so that it 
shall not be mouldy or musty. There ought to be no dust on al- 
falfa hay. There are no hairs upon alfalfa stems and leaves as 
there are on clover leaves ; therefore alfalfa hay has no tendency to 
bestow "heaves" upon horses. For old and hard worked horses in 
thin flesh alfalfa has great restorative powers. For driving horses 
it should be fed in moderate amounts, else it will make them fat 
and soft. Even working teams may be fed too large amounts of 
alfalfa hay. It should be steadily borne in mind that early cut and 
well cured alfalfa hay is nearly as rich, pound for pound, as wheat 
bran, so that to feed too great an amount of it is not merely waste- 
ful, but puts an undue strain upon the excretory organs to eliminate 
the unnecessary food substance from the tissues. The over feeding 
of alfalfa hay to horses has in some localities caused the use of it 




m 



MCCORMICK MOWERS IN WESTERN FIELD OF ALFALFA. 

to become unpopular, and to raise an outcry against it. To offset 
that it may be said that the writer has fed no other hay to his 
horses, both working teams and driving horses with mares and 
foals, for many years, and has yet to observe the first instance of 
evil result, save that the driving horses when not used regularly 
become soft and easily sweated. 

For Mares and Foals. — There is nothing else so good for the 
mare, while she is carrying her unborn colt, as to run on an alfalfa 
pasture, and eat alfalfa hay in Winter. Her colt comes strong 
and well developed, and after it has come she is full of milk for it. 
Then if she is in the alfalfa meadow the colt early learns to nip the 
delicious herbage, and thus takes in additional nourishment at the 
time when he is best able to make use of it. It makes his bones 
grow and covers them with good firm muscle, it hastens his devel- 
opment greatly, it adds to his beauty and spirit and usefulness. 
The best thoroughbreds in the United States often come from the 
alfalfa meadows of California, and the breeders of race horses in 



10 FARM SCIENCE. 



Kentucky are beginning to add alfalfa to the bill of fare of their 
petted darlings. The great Percherons of France eat alfalfa with 
the bloom on it when they are lusty foals in their native land. 
The horse breeder wherever he is should at all times endeavor to 
rail to his aid this crop that is par excellence, the one best suited 
to his use. While there is some danger in grazing alfalfa with 
sheep or cows, there is none whatever in grazing it with horses, 
and thus not only the best but the cheapest possible development 
may be secured. 

Alfalfa for the Dairy Herd — Calves grown on alfalfa develop 
rapidly and are ready to become mothers earlier than when devel- 
oped on other foods. Pregnant cows fed alfalfa come in strong 
and well nourished, bearing full udders. Milking cows fed alfalfa 
hay as part of their ration give milk as with no other possible 
combination. Not to go into figures or tables of percentages, suffice 
it to say that alfalfa leaves are a little richer in protein than wheat 
bran, that alfalfa stems, cut early and nicely cured, are nearly as 
digestible as wheat bran, and nearly as palatable. Thus alfalfa 
may well take the place of a large part of the grain ration, and may 
be made to form nearly the whole of the needed protein. Thus 
not only is the ration very greatly cheapened, but the animals 
give far greater returns than when they do not have alfalfa hay. 
On most farms in the Corn Belt there is a decided scarcity of foods 
rich in protein. Corn itself is deficient, and there can not be fed 
enough corn to cows to make them give their greatest amount 
of milk, whereas if the attempt is made disaster results because 
the excess of fat forming food consumed leads to disorders of 
digestion or makes the cow too fat herself to be long a profitable 
dairy animal. Furthermore, the corn fodder and stover, the timothy 
hay and blue grass, the oat straw, sorghum, silage, nearly the 
whole list of common farm crops that can be grown for the dairy, 
are deficient in protein, so that alfalfa has for the dairy farmer 
a very great value, coming as it does to balance up these other 
more fattening and heat making provenders. This is not mere 
theory, but a fact most abundantly proven by experience in the 
West, in the Middle States and later in the heart of the best 
dairying section, through New York, Pennsylvania and New Eng- 
land, where some of the farmers are producing their own alfalfa, 
and others are securing it from their more fortunate brothers of the 
West. The writer has himself sent alfalfa hay to a gentleman 
milking one of the best herds of Guernseys in America, animals 
fed as well as science and skill could devise, and had word after- 
ward that the addition of alfalfa hay to their ration' made an in- 
crease in milk yield of twenty per cent ! 

Alfalfa and Silage the Cheapest Dairy Ration With good 

alfalfa hay and good sweet corn silage, made from corn that has 
been allowed to mature well before being harvested, the cheapest 
and best milk yields are secured. With this ration there is indeed 
very little need of any other grain. That great dairy authority, 
ex-Governor Hoard, has found in practice that with this combina- 
tion, and as little as four or five pounds daily of grain, not only has 
he had the maximum returns in milk and cream, but he has seen 
the dairy herd maintained in remarkable health and vigor. It is 
time the farmer should break away from the bonds that bind him 
to the miller and the dealer in food supplies, and learn to produce 
on his own farm nearly all that his animals need, including that 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA. 11 



most precious and costly thing of all, the protein content of his 
animals' ration. 

Alfalfa for Sheep — With lambs selling for $7.00 to $8.00 per 
head, and wool soaring, men begin to ask what sort of foods best 
agree with sheep. The answer is, if there is one thing that alfalfa 
is especially suited to, it is to the flock. Sheep love alfalfa above 
all other forage, and for a good reason. It is the one thing best 
suited to their needs. They, more than other animals, need a 
ration rich in protein. The growing lamb needs it to build his 
muscles, blood, brain, nerves and bone. The pregnant or nursing 
ewe needs it to replenish her system fast drained by the demands 
of her offspring. The ram needs it to keep up his vigor. The 
wool bearing sheep, and all breeds bear some wool, need alfalfa 
because it has in it the peculiar elements that make for growth 
of good, healthy, strong fibered wool. And thus all sheep crave 
and love alfalfa hay. Think for a moment what it means for an 
animal to like a food. Liking in the animal world is not whim or 



INTERNATIONAL HAY TEDDER. 



caprice. Man is the one animal, save a worm, that chews tobacco, 
the only animal that drinks whiskey. All animals crave things 
that are good for them. Why do they hunger for fitting foods? 
Because the very cells of their bodies are calling to be built, and 
thus instinct tells them that tough grasses nourish feebly if at 
all, that tender, rich alfalfa leaves and stems have in them sub- 
stances that when assimilated go directly to build the eager body 
cells, to reinforce the muscles and strengthen the bones and link 
together the nerves. If is a fact that sheep once accustomed to a 
diet of alfalfa will scorn prairie hay and turn from good red 
clover ; they seek that which nourishes best and digests most easily, 
therefore that tastes best to them. 

The Pregnant Ewe — The pregnant ewe needs alfalfa to make 
grow within her that highly organized body made up mostly of 
protein compounds, her unborn lamb. She needs it to repair 
the waste in her own body. She needs it to store her udder with 
milk against the time of coming of feeble baby head bunting un- 
steadily against her and seeking nourishment. With alfalfa in 



12 FARM SCIENCE. 



abundance she comes in strong, her baby lamb is strong, her 
milk flow assured. There is need that she should have not quite 
as much alfalfa as she would consume, else she might overdo the 
matter, and the lamb be born too large for safe delivery. She 
should have exercise and a liberal supply of fresh air. Then her 
safe lambing is assured. 

The Milking Ewe — After the lamb is born there is no longer 
any need to stint the ewe in the amount of alfalfa she is fed ; her 
own instinct will tell her how much. And it should be of the 
earliest cuttings, and nicely cured with the leaves all on. With this 
alfalfa very little grain indeed will be needed to make her give lib- 
erally of milk before grass comes. And after the first green 
grass of Spring comes it is fine if she can have her regular ration 
of alfalfa hay to supplement the grass, prevent scours and make her 
keep strong and in good flesh. Of course her little lamb will eat 
alfalfa hay from the time it is three days old, the tender leaves 
first, the stems later on, and there should be a special rack for 




AM. u 




INTERNATIONAL BULL RAKE AND STACKER IN OPERATION. 

it where the ewes can not come to disturb. With alfalfa hay 
and a little corn added, soaking both in mothers' milk, the baby 
lambs will soon attain a beautiful baby maturity that will enable 
their owners to sell them for many, many shekels of the coin of 
the realm. 

Alfalfa for Feeding Lambs — For fattening lambs born on 
the great ranges and kept there till weaning time in the Fall, 
nothing can take the place of alfalfa hay, if the greatest facility 
coupled with the largest profits are sought. The lamb feeding busi- 
ness has grown to magnificent proportions in Colorado, where the 
abundant streams coursing down from the giant snow capped 
Rockies spread their life giving waters over the fertile plains. 
There alfalfa is at its best estate, and nothing else is quite so profit- 
able, saving perhaps the crops that naturally follow on alfalfa 
sod — sugar beets, melons or truck. Enormous amounts of alfalfa 
hay are stacked up on these plains where the long dry Summers 
favor hay making operations very greatly, and when Winter 
comes the lambs are bought and placed in feed lots, and fed till 



Alfalfa culture in America. 13 



Spring on alfalfa hay with a little Nebraska or Kansas corn or na- 
tive barley or wheat. These lambs often come from the ranges 
half starved, having perhaps endured long drives and been held in 
corrals and shipping pens until they are little more than bones 
strung on end, but after they have eaten alfalfa hay for a time 
they become strong once more and ready to make good use of 
corn. So well do these lambs thrive on alfalfa hay and grain that 
it is 1 most difficult for men deprived of these feeds to compete with 
them in fattening lambs. In Ohio and other Eastern States there 
is now a good deal of alfalfa feeding to western range lambs in 
Winter. 

Alfalfa Fed Beef Cattle — What has been said of the mare and 
of the ewe applies as well to the beef cow. If she has a sufficiency 
of alfalfa hay in Winter she needs no grain at all. After her calf 
comes she may have a little grain, and she and the calf all the 
alfalfa they care to take, which given conditions are sure to go 
on as well as man can arrange. Her calf should be developed 
largely on alfalfa. It may eat alfalfa hay every day of its life, may 
be soiled with alfalfa during the growing season, may possibly 
be grazed on alfalfa pasture, though by far the better way is to 
cut the alfalfa and bring it to the calf. By this manner of feeding 
good flesh is produced and stature assured. It is too common 
among breeders of beef cattle in the Corn Belt to confine their ani- 
mals to rations composed mainly of corn and grass, neither having 
in them enough protein, thus there is a steady loss in size, in 
"scale," the animals soon become fat, undersized, "bunty" and 
"bunchy." The difficulty is that you have been asking impossi- 
bilities of the animal, asking it to make bricks without straw, or 
to build without bricks at all. Therefore breeders of pedigreed 
cattle find it necessary to have frequent recourse to Canadian and 
English herds to maintain the character of their own. In these other 
lands less corn and more clovers and other foods rich in protein 
are fed than in our own. There is blood in a turnip. There is 
blood and form and breeding in alfalfa, a plant that gives character 
to whatever it becomes. Therefore let the breeder of beef cattle 
see to it that alfalfa is one of his chief reliances. 

Alfalfa for Feeding Steers — Fattening cattle might be thought 
to be an exception to the rule heretofore insisted upon ; they are de- 
sired to be fattened as rapidly as possible, why, therefore, need 
they be fed any foods rich in protein? Why not feed them in the 
old fashioned way with corn alone, to quickly cover their ribs, and 
then let them go forward to market? 

The theory sounds well, but does not work well in practice. 
These animals find waste going on in their own systems. Digestive 
processes require muscular action, and there is need to repair mus- 
cular tissue. Nerve force is to be maintained. Then, after all, 
when these animals come to the feed lot they seldom have an ade- 
quate frame of lean tissue on which to build the fat. Moreover, the 
modern trade demands lean flesh intermixed with fat, not fat laid 
on in masses. And, finally, digestion goes on better when there is 
fed a variety of foods containing both fats and muscle builders. 
So theory backs up practice, and that tells always that steers fatten 
quicker and cheaper and better when they have all the alfalfa hay 
that they want in connection with their corn. It is astonishing 
how much the cost of fattening these cattle may be reduced if they 
are bought young and fed plentifully on good alfalfa hay, and only 



14 FARM SCIENCE. 



moderately with corn. And when this beef goes to the killer he 
finds it by far the most profitable. There is no doubt of the 
great place that alfalfa should fill in the cattle feeders' business. 
And the younger the cattle, the truer they are "babies," the better 
it pays to feed them alfalfa hay. 

Alfalfa for Pigs. — The problem of maintaining brood sows in 
complete health in Winter time is a serious one in the Corn Belt. 
They are voracious and must be fed. If fed sufficient corn to 
satisfy them they become too fat and have weak litters of pigs, or 
so unwieldy that they destroy their own offspring through their very 
great clumsiness. If they are deprived of sufficient corn to do this 
and given no other food, they do not keep in health, since it is 
Nature's way to have the stomachs and digestive tracts of the 
sow distended with bulky food. Therefore unless this is done 
there is set up within her an unnatural craving that ends in caus- 
ing her to eat her pigs at farrowing time. Now if she is fed a 
liberal allowance of alfalfa hay she finds in it nearly all the nour- 
ishment that she needs, she finds her alimentary canal distended 
comfortably, she is satisfied with same, and she brings into the 
world a fine litter of pigs, and has milk for them. She has use 
of her natural instincts and seldom destroys her pigs, either by 
accident or intent. It is wise to allow to her an ear or two of 
corn each day in addition to what early cut alfalfa hay she will 
consume. 

If it is Summer time and she can have the run of the alfalfa 
field she will thrive with very little grain in addition until the 
pigs come. After that time it will pay to feed her a little more 
grain. The sucking pigs will soon learn to nip the tender leaves 
and stems, and that will add greatly to their thrift and growth. 
It pays largely, however, to feed corn in addition to alfalfa pas- 
ture to shotes. It is not necessary to feed so much as when they 
do not have access to alfalfa, about half the usual amount of grain 
will cause a fine, thrifty growth. At the close of their life period 
it is well to give whatever amount of corn they will eat up clean. 
In this manner is made the cheapest and best possible pork. Fed 
in this way an acre of alfalfa pastured) with hogs has made a clear 
profit in one year o'f as much as $25.00. 

Grain to Feed with Alfalfa. — Corn is the best single grain to 
be fed in connection with alfalfa. Corn is rich in fat and low in 
protein. Alfalfa is very rich in protein and somewhat low in fat. 
These two should not be separated where flesh is desired. They 
most admirably supplement each other. Either for the fattening 
lamb, pig, calf or steer the ration of corn and alfalfa is an ideal 
one, for they very nearly balance each other, and both can be 
produced on the farm, and both are adapted to most parts of the 
United States and much of Canada. 

After corn, however, come barley and oats and wheat, valuable 
to supplement alfalfa, though of the "three barley is best, being richer 
in fat making elements. Very good lambs are made with alfalfa 
and barley or alfalfa and wheat or alfalfa and oats, or with a mixture 
of them all together. Yet when corn is available at nearly the same 
price it is very much to be preferred. 

Alfalfa for Poultry — The alfalfa field is a rich storehouse 
for the poultry keeper. In Summer time fowls forage far and 
wide, eating the tender alfalfa leaves, rich in protein, and finding 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA. 



15 



insects. In Winter time fowls will consume great amounts of 
alfalfa leaves and the fine stems. Sometimes alfalfa is ground into 
meal for poultry and swine. This is well, though when it is in 
large supply it is not necessary to do this, as it is cheaper to waste 
a part of the stems than to grind them into meal. Fowls given 
all the alfalfa that they desire are more healthy and lay many more 
eggs than without it. 

What Alfalfa Does for the Soil — Supposing that all that has 
been said is true, as the reader may well believe, there must arise 
within his mind a doubt as to whether there can be any further 
cataloguing of the virtues of the alfalfa plant. Has it not been 
exhausted in its virtues by now? By no means! One of the very 
best of its gifts to man is yet to be related— alfalfa enriches soils. 
It is a clover, and enriches soils in the same manner that all clovers 
do by the growth upon its roots of bacteria, that have the power to 
fix nitrogen from the air. By this means it wonderfully improves 




INTERNATIONA 



tEAR HITCH SWEEP RAKE IN THE FIELD. 



soils. Then by its very deep roots it feeds upon the lower depths 
of the soil and draws up the stores of fertility that may be down 
there. After alfalfa has grown upon a field for two, three, four, 
six or more years, when that field is broken it will be found to have 
been enriched beyond what was ever known of it before. What- 
soever is planted upon that land will yield wonderfully, and again 
when it is laid down to alfalfa that will in turn grow better than 
it did before. That is perhaps because of the inoculation that 
has taken place and that enables one to get a perfect stand of 
alfalfa sooner, and because the decay of the long roots has opened 
up the subsoil and made it more readily permeable. 

How Alfalfa Hay May Build Soils — The amount of fertilizing 
material that will come from an acre of first class alfalfa is equal 
to what would be bought in the bag for $60.00. Now if the owner 
of a depleted soil can get one small field established in alfalfa, and 
will save the hay and feed it with care, saving all of the manure 
and putting it out upon another tract, he can thus enrich this suffi- 
ciently to make it grow alfalfa. Now let him have the two fields 
producing alfalfa, and using the hay again and saving the manure 



16 Farm science. 



he is ready to enrich the third field. And thus gradually he may 
extend the area of his alfalfa land until some day, if that man has 
faith and keeps on, some day he may sweep the poverty altogether 
off his farm and find it redeemed, glorious in beauty in Summer 
time and yielding him a steady and very great profit. This may 
not be so well understood by readers who, living in the and West, 
find all of their land ready to take alfalfa, but in the older clays of 
the rainy East little land is naturally now in condition to take the 
seed until it has been first enriched. 

How to Start an Alfalfa Field — Naturally the ways of sowing 
alfalfa vary with the location and climates. In the arid West it is 
a simple matter. The land is usually plowed in Winter or early 
Spring, worked down to a good seedbed and the seed sown alone in 
middle' Spring time. It is irrigated occasionally according to the 
nature of the soil, and crops are often taken from it the same 
year, though it is not at its best until the third year, but it will 
yield very heavy crops the second year. In some countries it is a 
practice to sow a light seeding of oats with the alfalfa, in other 
regions this will not do since the oats will lodge or bed down and 
smother the slender alfalfa plants. In general the better practice 
in the arid region is to sow the alfalfa alone. 

The amount of seed to the acre varies between four and thirty 
pounds. The smaller amount of seed is sometimes sown when seed 
is desired from it, as it seeds better not to be thick. There are 
14,448,000 seeds in a bushel of alfalfa seed. Therefore to' sow half 
a bushel to the acre would put 166 seeds to the square foot. To 
sow fifteen pounds would put on eighty-three seeds. Seeing that 
this is true, it is evident that it is more essential to have good seed 
and good distribution of the seed than to use a great amount of 
seed. About twelve to' sixteen plants to the square foot are all 
that will ever stand, and on rich, deep soils they will not long endure 
even that much crowding. 

Clipping the Young Alfalfa — Weeds often come up to crowd 
the young alfalfa. To destroy these weeds clip the field with the 
mower, setting it to run as close to the ground as possible. There 
may come a yellowish rust that attacks the leaves. To destroy this 
clip close with the mower. Therefore when preparing land for 
alfalfa see to it that the field is left as smooth as practicable, so 
that the mower may run over it in security. This trouble of the 
leaf rust will not be so much in evidence in Western lands as in 
the lands east of the Mississippi river. 

Pasturing on Young Alfalfa Seedings It is not well to 

allow any animals to graze upon a young alfalfa meadow. They 
will likely do far more damage than the good they will get will 
pay for. When it is time for the alfalfa to be clipped take the 
mower to it, and if there is enough stuff on the ground to be 
worth while rake it up and take it away. After the first season 
pasturing may be resorted to if it is thought desirable, and little 
bad result will be seen if the field is not over stocked. 

Seeding Alfalfa in the Middle West — In the region from 
f he Mississippi river to the western limit of the rain belt alfalfa 
thrives well, but more care is needed to get stands than in the arid 
region proper. Spring sowings are usual, without a nurse crop. 
A better plan is to plow the land early in Spring or during the 
Winter, and to work it up with disk or harrow as soon as the 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA. 



17 



growing season has started weed life, and thereafter to harrow 
it after every rain until some time in late May or June, when the 
seed may be sown with confidence that it will not be choked with 
weeds, and that there will be enough moisture stored in the soil 
to carry it triumphantly through the hot Summer. The essential 
thing in this plan is, however, to be certain to harrow thoroughly 
after every rain, not only to destroy germinating weeds, but to 
conserve all of the moisture. When the seed is sown it should be 
sown if possible with a drill, about one and one-half or two inches 
deep. Earlier in the season it is not necessary to sow it so deep. 
The depth that alfalfa seed may be sown varies according to the 
soil, but in most of this region the soils are black, loose and loamy. 

Field Seeding in Iowa — A method that has given very fine 
results for the past few years has been practised in Iowa; it is 
the sowing after a crop of wheat or oats in mid-Summer. To ac- 
complish this the crop of wheat or oats is removed as early as 
possible and at once the land is plowed. Each day what is plowed 




INTERNATIONAL SIDE HITCH SWEEP RAKE AT WORK. 

is prepared with care to permit the escape of as little moisture as 
possible. Then alfalfa seed is sown alone. It needs no clipping 
that year, goes safely through the Winter and the next year gives 
three large crops of hay. The advantage of this method is that 
there is no loss of land and no trouble with weeds or fox tail 
grass, the great pest of alfalfa growers in the Corn Belt. Should 
the late Summer prove unusually dry this method might not be suc- 
cessful, and in case it is to be sown on clay that naturally freezes 
and thaws often during the Winter and heaves badly, the young 
alfalfa roots might not be strong enough to resist. Thus far, 
however, it has given excellent results at the Iowa Experiment 
Station and is being adopted in other parts of that State. It is 
probably a system adapted to Illinois conditions, especially in the 
northern part. 

Need of Manure in Iowa and Illinois — The soils of this 
region are black and quite rich. And yet for many years they re- 
fused to grow profitable crops of alfalfa. It was found to be very 
difficult to grow alfalfa upon them. When it did grow it seemed 



18 FARM SCIENCE. 



often to be without nodules upon the roots, and therefore devoid 
of bacteria. A few years ago it was discovered that when stable 
manure was spread upon that seemingly fat, black land, alfalfa 
was easily established upon it, and inoculation came naturally and 
abundantly. Now on all the soils of this region well enough 
drained alfalfa may be very profitably grown if care is taken first 
to liberally distribute over the fields stable or yard manure, work- 
ing it into the soil to create there the ferment or yeast needed in 
that soil to start the bacterial life, and after it is once established it- 
will endure profitably for a number of years, how long it is not 
yet possible to say. 

Need of Drainage in Illinois and Parts of Iowa and Minne- 
sota. — There is a serious need in much of the black soil of this 
Corn Belt of more complete drainage than it has at present, before 
it is really fit for alfalfa culture. Men growing only corn, or corn 
and oats and timothy hay, have not usually a vivid conception of 
how wet their lands are during a good part of the year. In Illinois 
very much of the draining that has been done has been done super- 
ficially, with tiles too close to the surface. These should be deep- 
ened so that none of them is at a less depth than thirty-six inches, 
and if they can be put down forty-eight inches all the better. Then 
there are needed other drains between the ones now in use. When 
this is done and some manure made use of there is no doubt that 
very fine alfalfa fields can be maintained in Illinois. 

Comparison of Corn and Alfalfa.-— It is hard for a farmer in 
the heart of the Corn Belt to consider, seriously the demands of any 
other crop, yet if he will study alfalfa a little he will see that he 
is accepting no inferior plant when he puts it in place of some of 
his corn fields. Alfalfa will make on good land in that region a 
total yield during the season of from four to eight tons per acre. 
Taking six tons as a standard, and calling the hay worth $8.00 per 
ton, there is thus derived from that acre a gross revenue of 
$48.00. To equal that amount the field must yield 120 bushels of 
corn which must sell at 40 cents per bushel. Or, put it according 
to the amount of available and digestible carbohydrates and protein 
produced by these crops, the alfalfa will yield fully three times as 
much protein as the corn and double the carbohydrates, too ! Fur- 
thermore, the alfalfa is not depleting the soil, while corn is a robber 
crop. 

Alfalfa Seeding in the Eastern Regions — East of Illinois be- 
gin the clays, gravels and loams that extend through Indiana, Ohio, 
New York, Pennsylvania and the sister States. Few indeed of these 
soils are ready for alfalfa in their natural state, yet all of them 
will yield it most profitably when made fit for it. The requirements 
of alfalfa in these States are simple. It needs, first, to have the 
land drained, if it is not naturally dry. It requires that the land 
be sweet. In parts of Indiana, Northern Ohio, in some of Penn- 
sylvania and New York there are acid soils. These must first be 
sweetened with lime before they will grow good alfalfa. The third 
requirement is that these soils be stored with organic matter, with 
humus. That means that they must be spread over with stable 
manure. After these three conditions have been met there is noth- 
ing but a little knowledge of the plant necessary to make it thrive 
admirably. The farm on which the writer lives grows now annually 
about 350 tons of alfalfa hay. though ten years ago little of its area 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA. 19 



was adapted to alfalfa at all. Tile underdrains and manure have 
made its growth possible, and it has proven very profitable. 

Sowing Alfalfa on Eastern Clay Soils — The best method of 
sowing seems to be to break the land, after having thoroughly well 
manured and drained it, and plant one year to corn, keeping the 
corn clean of weeds and fox tail grass. The next year it should 
be again plowed as early in Winter or Spring as it can be and 
deeper than ever before. After danger of hard freezing is over, 
say in late April, the seed is sown upon a nicely pulverized seed- 
bed, at the rate of from ten to fifteen pounds per acre. At the 
same time a bushel of beardless Spring barley is sown for a 
nurse crop. Oats are not admissible, since they usually on this 
well manured land lodge and destroy the young seeding beneath. 
The barley is taken off when ripe for grain and the young alfalfa 
is clipped at the same time. It may need one or two subsequent 
clippings, and it may not. The safe rule is to let it alone as long as 
it continues to grow thriftily. When it rusts and stops growing, or 
when fox tail grass or weeds crowd it, it should be mowed off 
close. The object of the barley is to discourage that marauder, 
fox tail grass, which it does quite effectually. Thus you will gain 
also the crop of barley for the use of the land. It is not usual to 
get much alfalfa the first year of sowing. If any of the clippings 
make hay enough to be worth raking off save them. Keep all 
animals off the field the first season. 

Never Allow Animals to Tread on Alfalfa Fields in AVinter — 

It is sure death to the crowns to be tramped upon in cold weather, 
especially in the Eastern States. Neither should wagons ever pass 
over the meadows in Winter. 

Making; Alfalfa Hay — The time to cut alfalfa is when it has 
begun to bloom, the lower leaves have begun to turn yellow and 
drop off, and buds are starting out from the base of the stems. 
Cut then, for it has in it the greatest amount of nutrients. Allowed 
to stand longer the stems become woody, some of the leaves are 
lost, and the hay is not so palatable, nutritious nor digestible. 
If cut too soon before the buds have set on the stems, sometimes 
the succeeding crop is seriously injured, for what reason is not yet 
known. 

Rush the Hay Making; If possible all of one crop should be 

cut down within a week, seeing that it is all ready at one time. 
Thus the hay is secured in best condition and the following crop is 
benefited by being given the space in which to 1 grow. Wide cut 
mowers are convenient things in the alfalfa field. After the 
hay is laid down the haymakers should keep close watch, and 
as soon as it shows signs of drying and before the leaves will 
fall from the stems, it should be raked into small windrows and 
permitted to cure in part in the windrow, or in the cock, according 
to where you are and what sort of climate you must work in. 
Alfalfa dried in the swath loses many of the leaves when raked. 

Side Delivery Hay Rakes. — These machines work well in al- 
falfa meadows, since they leave the hay loose, in good condition 
for drying. In Eastern meadows, under showery conditions, the 
hay is best cocked up in small cocks while it is yet tough. Such 
cocks will turn rain well and may be afterward opened out on a 
sunny day, or they may become dry without opening. Then, too, 
hay caps may be used on the cocks to advantage. 



20 FARM SCIENCE. 



The Test of Sufficient Dryness — Take a wisp of the hay, choos- 
ing a damp part of it, and twist it violently into a rope. If no 
moisture can be made to exude from the stems the hay may be put 
into the mow or stack, especially if many tons are to be put to- 
gether. If only a ton or two will be put into a small mow it 
should be well dried before putting away, since it is more apt to 
mould and become dusty than when much is piled together. 

Plowing Alfalfa Sod — Alfalfa sod is very hard to plow; with 
indifferent tools impossible. It can be done with comfort, but it 
requires, first, a good team of three strong horses; next, a plow, 
preferably a walking plow, in good repair, with a very sharp share. 
Next, it needs a sober and Christian hearted man. And it is a great 
aid to carry a file, and frequently file to a knife edge the cutting 
edge of the share. A little V shaped wing running horizontally 
out from the landside under the edge of the uncut land about three 
inches is a great help, since it makes the plow run steadily and ren- 
ders the next furrow far easier to turn. 

Some of the alfalfa roots will not be cut off, and they will 
live over, doing no harm in the succeeding crop. All that are 
cut off will probably die. and there is no danger of alfalfa spreading 
beyond the original limits of it's field. 

Alfalfa makes little seed in rainy regions. It seeds best in 
the dry parts of Kansas, Nebraska and westward. Usually the 
first crop is allowed to make seed. It is easily threshed, and in 
favorable seasons yields heavily, from one to fifteen bushels per 
acre being reported. The only seed worth much is the common 
alfalfa, but it is wise not to get seed from a latitude south of you. 

Inoculation — Alfalfa will not thrive without the right bacteria 
upon the roots. Nor will milk sour without the bacteria of sour- 
ing being present. And yet milk sours, and yet women folks do not 
add bacteria, knowingly, to their milk. Nevertheless milk will 
sour more rapidly if a little sour milk is added to the sweet at 
milking time. So alfalfa will surely become inoculated by nat- 
ural processes if grown on fit soil, but it will the sooner become 
inoculated if earth from an old field is dried in the shed and pul- 
verized and sown broadcast over the field and harrowed in. There 
are also cultures available that are used to inoculate the seed. 
They are sometimes of use. They often fail to be of use, through 
some defect in the method. It is not worth while to bother with 
cultures. It is worth while when sowing alfalfa on land that has 
never had it before to use soil from either an old alfalfa field or 
a sweet clover (mellilotus) patch. The bacteria that live on 
mellilotus are the same that live upon alfalfa. 

Do not sow either alfalfa or bacteria upon soils not a fit home 
for bacteria. That means that the land should be dry, sweet and 
stored with vegetable matter. 

Some Other Things About Alfalfa — Bees love the blooms, 
especially in the western lands. Alfalfa honey is prime. Alfalfa 
covers the land with perennial beauty. It makes work for many 
laborers to gather the harvests and to feed the hay. It causes new 
homes to spring up, puts paint on school houses and sends little 
urchins trudging along country lanes with full dinner pails and 
smiling faces. It is one of God's richest gifts to man. 

Joseph E. Wing, 

Mechanicsburg, Ohio. 



Modern Corn Culture 

SELECTING AND STORING SEED— PREPARING THE 
GROUND— CULTIVATION OF THE PLANT. 



By Prof. P. G. Holden 



m 



Bffig 




NE of the best plans is to begin this spring by select- 
^-w ing fifty or one hundred of the very best ears in your 

Ijy (J seed corn, while you are making the test of germina- 

^\'f tion. These ears should then be butted and tipped 

and each ear shelled by itself and carefully studied. 
The kernels should have a bright, cheerful appear- 
ance, be full and plump at the tips and have a large 
clear germ, otherwise they should be discarded. It 
is very important that this choice seed corn be 
planted at the time of the first planting, putting it on 
the south or west side of the field, unless there is 
danger that it would become mixed from some 
neighbor's corn near by. In this case, it may be put on the other 
side of the field. 

The important thing is to get it in early and, if possible, on fall 
plowed ground. This will allow the corn to become thoroughly 
matured early next fall. The great importance of this can not be 
over-estimated. It is the late maturing corn that is caught by the 
freezes, as there is not sufficient time for it to dry out. 

All the seed corn for the next crop should be selected from this 
patch which was planted from the very best ears. It is a very com- 
mon practice to select the occasional good ears found throughout 
the husking season. There are three important reasons why this 
should not be done. In the first place, we are more likely to neglect 
the work until too late, when we find ourselves without good seed for 
the next year. Again, we often begin harvesting from the poorest 
parts of our fields first for early feeding, as this corn is more likely 
to be soft and will not crib well. It should also be remembered 
that the occasional good ears which are harvested throughout the 
husking season have necessarily been fertilized to a greater or less 
extent by pollen from the scrub stalks and those which are perhaps 
barren. In other words, we have simply selected a good female, but 
know nothing of the character of the male stalk from which the 
pollen came that fertilized the kernels. 

On the other hand, if our seed is all selected from the seed patch 
planted only from the very best ears, we are much more certain of 
good parents on both sides. It is a good practice and one followed 
by many corn growers to go through this seed patch of three or four 
acres planted from this fifty or sixty best ears of corn, after it has 
been "laid by" and before the tassels appear, and to cut out all the 
weak and sickly stalks and those that are too tall and late or too 
short and early and in this way to prevent them from producing 
pollen to fertilize the kernels of other ears. 

One of the most serious dangers from depending on the occasional 
good ear found throughout the corn husking season is that many 

?i 



22 



FARM SCIENCE. 



of the fields being 'late and the corn immature, the husks will pre- 
vent the corn from drying out properly. As a consequence, it 
is frozen before it is husked or, at least, before it has had time to 
dry out after husking. Again, we often begin harvesting our poor- 
est fields first and delay saving seed until we come to our "best 
fields." 

If every ear of corn that is to be used for seed in Iowa next year 
could be harvested this fall not later than October ioth, and hung 
up where it would dry out thoroughly before the bitter cold freezes 
of November, it would add millions of dollars to the wealth of the 
State. 

Let us go into the best and earliest planted fields, and select well 
matured ears from the most vigorous stalks, strip off their husks 
and hang in the attic at once where the circulation of air is good and 
protection is afforded from the cold freezing weather of November 
and December. In the 228,000 Iowa farms an average of about 40 
acres is devoted to the growing of corn, and while six bushels of 




good seed is sufficient to plant this, let us abundantly provide our- 
selves and save two or three times this amount, as some pests may 
call on us to replant, or our neighbor may need some seed. Re- 
member, it takes only about a dozen ears to plant an acre. Each ear 
should have special care. 

The above cut illustrates one of the best and safest methods of 
storing seed corn. Ten or twelve ears are tied in a string and hung 
on some wires supported by other wires from the rafters. 

The twenty-one strings of seed corn shown in the cut require a 
space less than six feet long by twenty inches wide, and yet this 
amount of seed will plant more than fifteen acres. 

The advantages of this method of storing are : 

Firsts that it gives better protection from mice than where it is 
spread on the floor or corded in piles or put in racks. 

Second, it gives better circulation of air which allows the corn to 
dry out quickly and thoroughly, thus protecting it from molding and 
sprouting and from being frozen while it is sappy. 

The greatest enemy to good seed corn is hard freezing while it 
still contains moisture, consequently there is more danger from late 
harvesting than from too early harvesting. However, it is not a 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 



23 



good plan to harvest the seed in September while the corn is imma- 
ture, as it is more difficult to preserve, and will be chaffy and will 
give weaker plants than corn which has been allowed to mature 
fully on the stalk. 

Place for Storing Seed — Taking all things into considera- 
tion probably there is no better place to store seed corn than in 
the attic. In the nearly 5,000 samples of seed corn sent to the col- 
lege for testing during the last two years, those preserved in the at- 
tic generally gave the strongest germination and also the highest 
percentage. The experiments conducted at the college, where seed 
was stored in more than forty different ways, also show that the 
attic is one of the very best places for seed corn. 

The second best place seems to be the cellar and especially the 
furnace room. There are several objections to the average cellar. 
It is liable to be too damp. The corn must be well dried before 




PLANO HUSKER AND SHREDDER IN OPERATION. 

being placed in the cellar and it must not be corded up or put in piles 
but hung up. 

There is more danger from mice and generally there is less room, 
but it has one great advantage in that it protects the corn from the 
hard freezes. Seed that is hung in the barn or under an open shed 
generally comes through the winter in fair condition provided it was 
harvested and hung up during the early part of October. Yet the 
experience of the last two years shows that much of the seed stored 
in this way was either killed or greatly weakened. During the warm 
damp spells the seed gathered moisture and was injured by the 
freezes that followed. 

It is quite generally supposed that if the seed sprouts in the 
spring it is all right. As a matter of fact, much of it has often been 
so weakened that it will not grow, especially if the ground is cold or 
the seed is planted too deep, or if it does grow it gives only weak 
stalks "fooling around all summer doing nothing." 

Bad seed has cost Iowa this year not less than sixty or seventy 
million bushels of corn. This is placing it at a very low estimate. 
Few people realize how great is this loss to the state each year. 



24 FARM SCIENCE. 



We can not afford to be careless with our seed corn. It means 
too much. Poor seed means a poor stand; not only is a part of our 
field idle, but we must cultivate the missing hills and the^ one stalk 
hills and the poor worthless stalks, and we receive nothing in re- 
turn. 

Thousands of people this year in Iowa worked more than a third 
of every day on ground that produced nothing. Do not depend for 
seed on the occasional good ear. The corn will be injured by freez- 
ing before it is husked, or before it has had time to become dry after 
husking. 

Do not store seed corn in barrels or boxes. It will gather mois- 
ture, as we say, and mold or freeze. Do not store over the laundry 
nor over the stable. Do not put immature or freshly gathered seed 
corn in a warm room on the floor or in piles. It will either sprout or 
mold or both. It should be hung up at once, and the windows 
opened to allow the freest circulation of air. 

Do not depend on the crib for seed corn. 

The importance of selecting fifty or sixty of the choicest ears 
and planting them on one side of our earliest planted field can not 
be too strongly emphasized. Out of this seed patch the seed for 
next year's crop should be selected not later than October 20th, 
and hung up at once where it can dry out thoroughly before any 
severe freeze. 

Let us have a time and a definite plan for harvesting and stor- 
ing our seed corn. One day devoted to the seed corn at the proper 
time may be worth more to us than an entire month of hard work 
next summer put on a poor stand of corn. 




NO. 3. NO. 2. NO. I. 



No. i shows a character of growth that is more dangerous than 
the absolutely dead kernels. This ear should not be planted. Three 
kernels will fail to grow and three show such weak germination that 
it is unsafe to trust them. They have failed to start root sprouts. 

No. 2 shows a strong growth, indicating strong vitality. Only 
60% of the kernels that have been sent to us from more than 
3,000 Iowa corn growers during the last season show such vitality 
as illustrated in No. 2. 

No. 3 shows weak vitality. If planted under favorable condi- 
tions these kernels might do fairly well, but if planted under un- 
favorable conditions, they would probably fail to grow or would 
give weak stalks. Twenty-one per cent of the seed corn received 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 25 



far testing showed a similar strength. Nineteen per cent was no 
better than No. i. 

Another objection is the fact that the strong ears would be 
more or less fertilized by the pollen from the undesirable stalks. 

Poor Stand of Corn. — A "poor stand'' of corn is responsible 
more than anything else for the low average yield in the central 
west. The ground may be rich, the preparation good, and the 
corn may receive the best of cultivation, but if the stand is poor 
the yield will be correspondingly poor. 

Careful counts of the number of stalks to the hill were made 
last year in more than a thousand different corn fields and it would 
be safe to say that there was not to exceed sixty-six per cent, of 
a perfect stand on an average and in some cases it fell as low as 
forty per cent. This means that the state devoted nearly 9,000,000 
acres to corn, and produced only a 6,000,000 acre crop, or, to put 









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CORN SHOCKER CUTTING AND GATHERING THE SHOCK. 

it in another way, with a perfect stand the present average yield 
of thirty-two bushels would be increased to fifty bushels to the 
acre or an increase to the state of 153,000,000 bushels. This does 
not take into consideration the increased yield made possible 
through the use of improved varieties, better-bred seed, elimina- 
tion of barren stalks by means of breeding, better methods of 
cultivation, etc. 

The real seriousness of the situation will be more apparent 
from the following counts illustrating the stand in the poorer, 
medium and better fields of Iowa. The following figures illustrate 
the number of stalks to the hill in the poorer fields 122203201 
3 o 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 3 o 1 2 1 o o 2 1 3. Each of the first three hills 
had two stalks, the fourth hill was missing and the next had three 
stalks, etc. 

That the results might be as accurate as possible, counts simi- 
lar to the above were made in three places in each field. The 
hills were taken just as they came in the row and generally cross- 
wise to the way the corn was planted. The field above represents 
only fifty-two per cent, of a stand of corn. Twenty-five per cent. 



26 FARM SCIENCE. 



of the hills were missing. Thirty-five per cent, had one stalk, 
twenty-five per cent, had two stalks and twenty per cent, had 
three stalks to the hill. If the poor stand was largely due to 
seed of low vitality, which is generally true in case of very poor 
stands, then the same influence which killed a part of the seed 
must also have greatly weakened that which did grow and as, a 
consequence, the yield is even much less than what is represented 
by the stand. 

The above represents what is found in hundreds of corn fields 
everywhere in Iowa. Many fields were found in which the stand 
was as low as forty per cent. The following will illustrate very 
closely the average stand in the state :23i2ioii33i3i2 
22303120212. On the average soil of the state this would 
represent about sixty-five per cent, of a stand of corn. Twelve 
per cent of the hills were missing, twenty-eight per cent, of the 
hills had one stalk, thirty-two per cent, of the hills had two stalks, 
and twenty-eight per cent, of the hills had three stalks. The fol- 




OSBORNE CORN BINDER IN OPERATION. 



lowing represents the stand in some of the very best fields in the 
state : 343213333233332333333333. In this field, 
there were no hills missing, four hills had one stalk, twelve had 
two stalks, seventy-six had three stalks, and eight hills had four 
stalks. 

This represents not less than ninety-five to ninety-six per cent. 
of a perfect stand. 

If we go into our fields at husking time and make a study of 
the stand of corn,, we shall be convinced of the serious losses to 
ourselves and to the state each year from a poor stand of corn. 

Variety Test of Corn — Last spring, the Agricultural Depart- 
ment obtained seed from more than ninety different sources. The 
corn was all collected from farmers living within a radius of ten 
miles from Ames. In order to obtain samples of corn actually 
planted, the farmers were visited and the corn was taken either 
directly from the planter boxes in the field or from the sacks from 
which the seed corn was being planted. 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 27 



The samples were planted by hand, three kernels to the hill, 
and the experiment was repeated three times and treated alike 
in every respect, throughout the season. 

The following table gives the yield to the acre of the six high- 
est yielding samples and also of the six lowest yielding samples : 

Six Highest Yielding Samples Bushels to the Acre 

Sample No. 59 80.5 

Sample No. 58 80.0 

Sample No. 66 78.5 

Sample No. 71 77 .0 

Sample No. 138 75 . o 

Sample No. 68 75 • o 

Average 77.5 

Six Lowest Yielding Samples Bushels to the Acre 

Sample No. 44 31 .5 

Sample No. 132 33-5 

Sample No. 36 34-5 

Sample No. 32 36.6 

Sample No. 29 37 . 5 

Sample No. 33 40.0 

Average 35-6 

Note particularly the wide range in yield from 80.5 bushels 
to the acre to 31.5 bushels of a difference of 49 bushels. The 
average yield of the six highest samples was 77.5 bushels, while 
the average of the six lowest yielding samples was 35.6 bushels, 
or a difference of 41.9 bushels per acre. 

This great difference in yield was due largely to the difference 
in vitality of the seed, as in every case the low yielding samples 
had given a poor stand. It strongly emphasizes the great import- 
ance of knowing that the seed to be planted will give a good, strong, 
vigorous germination. 

Testing Each Ear of Corn — There is, perhaps, no one thing 
which will do so much to increase the yield of corn on every farm 
as the testing of each ear to be used for seed. This should be 
done before the rush of spring work begins or it is likely to be 
neglected. 

The importance of discarding ears that refuse to grow or show 
a weak germination is apparent when we realize that one ear 
will plant one-fourteenth to one-sixteenth of an acre. 

The most practical way for testing the germination of each 
ear is by using a germination box. This is a simple affair and 
can be made by any one in an hour's time. Any box about six 
inches deep and 2x3 feet in area may be used. Fill the box about 
half full of moist sand, earth, or saw-dust, well pressed down, 
so that it will leave a smooth, even surface. In case saw-dust 
is used it should be put in a gunny sack and set in a tub of warm 
water for half an hour so that it will be thoroughly moistened 
before using. 

Take a white cloth about the size of the box, rule it off, checker- 
board fashion, one and a half inches each way. Number the checks 



28 



FARM SCIENCE. 



i, 2, 3, and so on and place it over the saw-dnst and tack to the 
box at the corners and edges. 

Lay out the ears to be tested,, side by side on the floor. Re- 
move one kernel from near the butt, middle and tip of the ear. 
Turn the ear over and remove three kernels from the opposite 




FIG. I. REMOVING THE KERNELS. 



side, in like manner, making six kernels in all, thus obtaining a 
sample from the entire ear. Place the six kernels at the end of 
the ear from which they were taken. Use care that the kernels do 
not get mixed with the kernels from the ear next to it. After 
the kernels are removed, boards may be laid over the rows of 




FIG. 2. PUTTING THE KERNELS IN THE GERMINATION BOX. 

corn to keep them in place until the germination is known. (See 
Figure 3). 

Place the kernels from ear of corn No. 1 in square No. 1 of 
the germination box ; from ear No. 2 in square No. 2, and so on 
with all of the ears. Then place over this a cloth considerably 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 



29 



larger than the box. Cover with about two inches of moist sand, 
earth or saw-dust and keep in a warm place where it will not 
freeze. The sitting-room will perhaps be the most suitable place. 

The kernels will germinate in four to six days. Then remove 
the cover carefully to avoid misplacing the kernels in the square, 
(a piece of thin cloth placed over the kernels before the covering 
is put on. will prevent the kernels from sticking to the upper 
cover). Examine the kernels in the germinating box; for ex- 
ample, the kernels in squares No. I, n and 20 (see Figure 3), 
have failed to grow and some of the kernels in square 2, 3, 4, 9, 
12, and 15 have refused to grow or show weak germination. The 
corresponding ears should be rejected. The ears showing weak 
germination should be treated the same as worthless ears. 

The kernels are placed on the floor opposite the ear from 
which they were taken. Before removing the kernels from the 
ears, it is a good plan to drive nails at each end of the rows of 
corn to hold the ears in place. 



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I 



3 



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A f ft ; - 



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in 



s 



FIG. 3. SEEDS IN GERMINATION BOX. 

Germination Box — Figure 2 shows the operation of putting 
the kernels in the germination box ; placing those from ear No. 1 in 
block No. 1 ; from ear No. 2 in block No. 2, etc. 

The germination box is filled about half full of thoroughly 
moistened saw-dust. A cloth ruled off into blocks or squares is 
then placed on the saw-dust and fastened at the corners and edges 
by tacks to hold it in place. 

To prevent the ears from being disturbed while the test is being 
made, it is a good plan to place a heavy board or plank over each 
of the rows of ears. 

Preparing Seed Corn for the Planter After the germina- 
tion test, the next step is preparing the corn for the planter. First 



30 FARM SCIENCE. 



by removing the mixed kernels. In yellow varieties it can be done 
better before shelling and in white varieties after shelling, as the 
mixed kernnels often do not show in white corn until the corn has 
been shelled; second, by butting and tipping the ears of corn to 
insure the planter's dropping the correct number of kernels in each 
hill. 

To be certain of getting the drop adjusted properly, twenty or 
thirty ears should be shelled separately and put into grades of 
large, medium and small kernels. The planter may then be tried 
with each grade and the proper plates may be selected for each 
grade. If the proper plates are not at hand, then those nearest 
may be calibrated to do the work desired. 

This is very essential and it should be done before the rush of 
spring work begins. A small outlay for additional plates or a new 
planter may mean the difference between a good crop and a poor 
one. The planter must do the work properly. After the planter 
is tested and it is known what grades are needed, the seed corn 
should be carefully shelled, put into sacks and properly labeled. 

The planter can be adjusted to drop the different grades in uni- 
form manner if the grades are kept separate and the proper planter 
plate used for each grade, but if these different sized kernels^ are 
mixed and dropped miscellaneously it will be impossible to obtain 
a uniform number of stalks per hill. 

We cannot afford to neglect this important work. If every 
farmer in the state would test every ear of his seed corn in the 
way described above the yield would be wonderfully increased. 

No other time will be so profitable to the farmer as that spent 
in testing the vitality of his seed and in grading it to insure the 
planter's dropping the proper number of kernels in each hill. It 
is possible for every one to do this work. It will cost nothing but 
the time. 

Every farmer should realize the importance of testing every ear 
of his seed corn before spring work begins. No possible loss can 
come from it and it will insure a good stand of corn which is 
absolutely essential, if the best results are to be obtained from the 
year's hard work. One day spent in March on the seed corn, may 
be worth more than a month of hard work in the field, later. With- 
out good seed, the after labor is of little avail. Nothing is more 
depressing or discouraging than a poor stand of corn. If the seed 
is carefully tested and only good seed planted no risks are run, 
except those made necessary to every one from the conditions of the 
weather, etc., which can not be controlled. It is during the bad 
seasons, when conditions are unfavorable that we most need corn 
of vigorous germination. 

Product of a Single Hill — Fig. 15 illustrates what is too often 
seen in a single hill — a good ear, a poor ear and a nubbin. We have 
seen this so often that we never stop to think what it means. Why 
do not all these stalks bear ears like No. 1 ? Being in the same 
hill, the conditions of soil, climate and moisture must have been 
exactly the same. One could not have received more thorough 
cultivation than another. From the time the corn was dropped 
there was no good reason why Nos. 2 and 3 should not be as good 
as No. 1. Why, then, is there this wide variation? 

Can we do anything to bring Nos. 2 and 3 up to the standard set 
by No. 1 ? 

We can. The difference in yield of these three ears was not 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 



31 



due to differences in soil, climate or cultivation. The difference 
lay behind all this— it lay in the character of the parents planted 
If we could ocate all the stalks in the field whfch spring rom 
the brothers of the kernel that produced No. 2 we should find that 
the great majority of them were ears, on an average as good as 

No ' / a n e d S r ame T^ mg "ft 1 ? h ,° Id trUe t in the CaSe of ^ Paints o 
JNos. 3 and 1. This would lead us to the conclusion that the differ- 




FIG. 15. — PRODUCT OF A SINGLE HILL. 



ence in these three ears is due to the difference in the producing 
power of their parents. p " 8 

thp I viJ?H r S -l y ?l individLlal ears , we saw the wide variation in 
ear ? M a , dl ^ eni ea [ s Produced. We saw that while one 

ear yielded 90 bushels to the acre, another ear beside it, under 
exactly the same conditions, produced only thirty-six bushels. Some 
ears produced twelve times as many barren stalks as others and 
the same held true with the broken stalks. 



32 



FARM SCIENCE. 



Now if we can select the one which produces the small ear, the 
one which produces the nubbins, we shall have gone a long way 
toward materially increasing our yield. For it is evident that this 
wide variation is due to the difference in the producing power of 
these two ears. In this work of selection the ear may be taken as 
the unit. While there is something in the individuality of each 
kernel, we are sure of getting good corn and a large increase in 
the number of good ears to the hill if we study our seed ears care- 
fully and plant only the best. Fourteen ears on an average will 
plant an acre, therefore, if we put in one ear that produces a great 
many nubbins and barren stalks we greatly reduce our yield on 
that acre. 

Barren Stalks. — Out 
of the five stalks in these 
two hills only one produced 
a good ear. Note how weak 
and sickly the non-produc- 
tive stalks are compared 
with the productive one. 
Barrenness is one of the 
greatest sources of loss in 
corn growing. To the farm- 
er who grows corn for the 
grain alone these barren 
stalks are worse than a 
complete loss. They not 
only deprive the productive 
stalks of food, moisture and 
light, but they produce pol- 
len which fertilizes the silks 
of the good stalks and so 
reduces the vigor and future 
producing power of many 
of the good ears. Nubbins 
are simply a mild form of 
barrenness. 

This subject of barren 
stalks is very closely re- 
lated to that of "The Pro- 
duct of a Single Hill." (See 

Ihis cut gives an illus- 
tration of the class of stalks 
which produce the nubbins, 
or what is worse, nothing 
at all. The unproductive 
stalks in these two hills 

have hundreds of brothers scattered here and there throughout the 
field wherever the kernels from the ear that produced them were 
planted. Some of these brothers of course bore something, but a 
large per cent of the plants that came from that ear would be about 
like four of those in this cut — worse than nothing. 

On the other hand the stalks bearing the good ear would have 
hundreds of brothers throughout the field, which came from the 
same good ear as itself, bearing — not nubbins or nothing at all as 
these others are doing— but strong, vigorous stalks producing in 
{urn, a large percentage of good vigorous ears. 




MODERN CORN CULTURE. 



33 



This question resolves itself into one of getting rid of these 
unprofitable ears and of planting only vigorous ear-producing seed. 
On an average one stalk in every seven produces nothing because 
of barrenness. One acre in every seven planted to corn is worse 
than wasted because of these unproductive stalks. Yet a little time 
and care in selecting our seed corn — not a dollar in outlay is re- 
quired — will materially lessen this enormous loss. We can not pay 
too much attention to the careful selection of our seed corn. 

The kernels in the top row in Fig. 29 are taken from ear No. 
2 shown on the following page, fig. 31, and those in the bottom row 
are taken from ear No. 1. 




FIG. 29. 



The lower row of kernels in fig. 30 is from ear No. 1, fig. 31 
shown on the following page, and the kernels in the upper 
row are from ear No. 2. . Judging from outward appearances of 
the ear. little or no difference in their values could be discovered. 
The ears from which these two 1 rows were taken were almost 




fig. 30. 

exactly of the same size, yet ear No. 1 (see Fig. 31) weighed 16 per 
cent more than ear No. 2 and shelled out 20 x /2 per cent more corn 
than ear No. 2. Ear No. 2 is not only very much poorer in feed- 
ing value than No. 1 but has a much lower vitality and would give 
a weaker plant. 

It is very important that the tips of the kernels — the portion 
next to the cob — should be full and plump so that there is no 



34 



FARM SCIENCE. 



space between the kernels down near the cob. In selecting our seed 
corn it is important that we should do mo-re than look at the ears; 
we must study the kernels. 

Ear No. 2 shows space between the kernels next to the cob. 
Ear 1 is especially strong, showing good constitution. 







2 






FIG. 31. 



(See kernels from these two ears in Figs. 29 and 30 on pre- 
ceding page.) 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 



35 



Different Types of Kernels — Nos. i, 2 and 3 are illustrations 
of kernels with poor, weak, germs. Note how small and shrunken 
the germs are compared with No. 6 and No. 7. 



— 




FIG. 32. 

Nos. 8 and 9 are somewhat better, but the poor shape of their 
kernels, coupled with their small germs, make them very undesir- 
able kernels. 

Pointed kernels such as these do not give room for good develop- 
ment of germ. In addition to being pointed these kernels are very 
thin at the tips., and so are weaker than they appear. Kernels of 
this shape frequently break off in shelling, especially if immature. 

No. 2 has a shrunken, blistered germ owing to its immaturity 
but it is of a better form than 1, 8 or 9. Cobs bearing such 
kernels give a very low percentage of corn to cob as the wedge- 
like shape of the kernels does not allow them to lit closely. 

Nos. 3 and 10 are types of very broad, shallow kernels such as 
are grown in the north where the season is short and where deep 
kernels could not mature. 



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DEERING CORN BINDER. 



36 



FARM SCIENCE. 



Kernels 5 and 12 have germs rather under the medium size but 
are particularly weak at the crown. They do not carry their width 
up well like 13 and 14. They are thin at the crown giving a chaffy 
appearance to the ear. 

Of the remaining four No. 14 is the best, followed by 6. 13 and 
7 in the order named. No. 14 is a practically good kernel. It is 
of the broadly wedged type, carries its width well down to the 
tip, has good depth and good width. It possesses a large, plump, 
cheerful germ. The appearance of the whole kernel indicates 
strength and vitality. 

Fig. 33 shows kernels having large and small germs, taken from 
different ears of corn. The left hand kernels in all pairs come from 
ears with low feeding value and should be discarded for seed pur- 
poses, while the right hand kernels with large germs come from ears 
with a high per cent of oil and protein. 




fig. 33. 

Cultural Methods — There is no one best method suited to 
all parts nor to the different soils of a given part, nor even to 
the different fields of the same farm. Frequently two very different 
methods may give equally good results. 

There are no "iron clad" rules which can be followed blindly 
in the growing of corn any more than in any other farm work. 
Have good ground, do the work on time and do it thoroughly, 
should be the object of every corn grower. 

Importance of Good Ground — Nothing can make up for poor 
ground. Too many are trying to grow corn on "worn out" ground 
that has produced corn and oats for years. 

I met a man at an institute in Illinois who said, in all serious- 
ness that he was satisfied that the seasons were less favorable for 
growing corn than they used to be, as he could get no such crops 
as he formerly raised. It developed that he had grown corn for 
17 years in succession on the same piece of ground. No wonder 
that "the seasons were becoming less favorable." 



MODERN CORN CULTURE. 



37 



Let us remember that it was only a few years ago that the 
land of the Central West was broken from the virgin sod and 
because we have been able to crop the ground continuously in the 
past is no assurance that it can be done in the future. 

The fact is that the time is near at hand when we must pay 
greater attention to the fertility of our soil, to the conserving and 
restoring of the elements of plant food or we shall soon be com- 
pelled to pay out millions of dollars each year for these elements 
in the form of commercial fertilizers, as is now done in the East. 

The tremendous importance attached to this question can not be 
appreciated by those who have had no experience in using com- 
mercial fertilizers in the older settled parts of our country. 

What is needed is more clover, better use of the barn yard 
manure and less of the continuous cropping with corn and oats. 

Depth to Plow — What is known as deep plowing is generally 
not advisable in the corn belt, although the loose soils -and bottom 
lands may be plowed much deeper than the black prairie soils with 
less danger of bad results. 




M'CORMICK CORN BINDER. 



There is seldom any advantage in plowing more than six inches 
deep either in spring or fall. If ground is to be plowed deeper than 
formerly it should be done in the fall. On heavy soils, the bad 
effects of too deep plowing is often apparent for several years. 

Too Deep Planting. — Too' deep planting is especially bad when 
the seed is weak and the spring is cold and backward. When the 
ground is not well prepared or is very mellow, there is danger of 
putting the seed down four or five inches, when two would be 
better. Especial care should be taken in case of early planting when 
the ground is still cold. 

I know of several cases last spring where the same seed planted 
in two different fields, gave a good stand in one case and a very 
poor stand in the other. Investigation showed that the poor stands 
were due to too deep planting. Corn is generally planted deeper 
than we think. The planter wheels frequently sink into the ground 
two' or more inches and the corn is covered another two inches. 



38 FARM SCIENCE. 



The planter tracks are then filled by harrowing and the corn 
is often more than four inches deep. We often watch the planter 
carefully for a few rounds when we start the planter and then pay 
no more attention to the depth of the planting. The soil is gener- 
ally mellower as we get away from the head land and consequently 
the corn is planted deeper than we supposed. 

Cultivation — It is not possible at this time to go much into 
details, and of course, methods will vary greatly with local condi- 
tions, but there are a few things of importance often overlooked. 

Many think that there is nothing more to' do after the corn 
is planted for two weeks until it is up and large enough for the 
"first cultivation." 

There are others who believe in harrowing and even in cultiva- 
tion before the corn is up, but on account of the pressure of work, 
neglect it. Where ground is left in this manner for two weeks, 
and often longer, it becomes foul with weeds, which take up 
moisture and plant food and make it difficult to work the corn. 




MILWAUKEE CORN BINDER. 



The ground is packed by the rains and baked by the sun until it 
becomes hard and dry; that is "out of condition." 

It is especially important in the case of corn that it should not 
be stunted when young, as it never fully recovers, even under the 
most favorable conditions. We should keep a good, mellow, lively 
tilth until the corn shades the ground, preventing the rain and sun 
from beating upon it, making it hard, dry and mealy. 

The time to kill weeds is before they come up and before they 
have deprived the corn of moisture and nourishment. 

Where it is possible to do so. it is a good plan to cultivate the 
corn once before it comes up, following the cultivator with the 
harrow. If the piece is small so that the cultivation can be finished 
before the corn breaks through the surface, it is well enough to 
wait until the field is all cultivated and then cross it with the harrow 
instead of following closely behind the cultivator. However, in case 
of large fields, it is best to follow the cultivator with the harrow. 

Prof. P. G. Holden, 
Iowa Agricultural College, 
Ames, Iowa. 



Best Methods in Seeding 

PREPARATION OF SEED BED— SELECTION OF SEED 
SOIL CONDITIONS, VARIETIES, ETC. 



By Waldo F. Brown 




w 



a d 



mnr 



HY Wheat is One of the Leading Crops. In many 
respects wheat seems to be the most important crop 
the farmers grow. Its importance is due to the fol- 
lowing facts : 

1st. It is a crop which always commands the 
cash, and is always in demand. In speaking of 
the value of other crops or of investments, it is 
a common expression with farmers that "it is as 
good as old wheat in the mill." 

2nd. It divides the work so that a single 
team can do much more on a farm where wheat 
and corn are grown in about equal proportion than 
where corn is the sole or principal crop. 

3rd. It can be successfully grown on rolling lands, which, if 

continuously cultivated in corn, would soon be ruined by washing. 

4th. It gives an opportunity to rotate with clover, which, while 

occupying the land and furnishing plant-food for successive crops, 

is almost an essential crop in any good rotation. 

5th. It can be easily stored. There is little risk of injury from 
dampness, and almost no loss from shrinkage, and at the usual 
prices, a team can take to market several times as many dollars 
worth of wheat as of corn. 

6th. Probably no farm crop grown gives such certain and large 
returns for manure ?s this, and at the same time, under proper 
treatment, leaves the land in good condition for a succeeding crop. 
7th. It furnishes the farmer a large bulk of straw, which can 
be utilized for food, bedding, shelter, and as an absorbent for liquids 
which would, without it, on many farms, be wasted. 

8th. As wheat is exported to a large extent, and can be held 
for one or more years if desired, it is less subject to fluctuations 
in price than many other farm products, and is not so likely to be 
depressed by an unusually heavy crop. 

Flourishes in Many Kinds of Soils — Wheat flourishes on a 
great variety of soils, the essential conditions being good natural 
or artificial drainage, and a supply of available plant food. A lime- 
stone clay under favorable conditions is probably one of the safest 
soils for this crop, but it is grown with success on soils of various 
textures and degrees of fertility. 

Drainage Necessary for Good Crops — There is no crop which 
is more benefited by drainage than this. In fact it is scarcely wise 
to attempt the cultivation of wheat on a soil that is not drained 
either naturally or artificially, as a perfect crop can be grown on 
such land only in exceptionally favorable seasons. 

If the surface soil is filled with water during the winter and 
spring, the freezing and thawing will heave out the young plants, 

39 



40 FARM SCIENCE. 



and if water remains upon the surface the result will be more dis- 
astrous. 

Where the surroundings or the circumstances of the farmer are 
such as to make underdrainage impracticable, very good crops may 
often be obtained by plowing in narrow lands and opening out the 
dead furrows, making provision for a clear outlet so that water 
will never stand in these furrows. 

It will be sufficient for this purpose that the furrows be opened 
without rounding the lands. The latter practice, by giving a greater 
depth of surface in the middle of the land, is liable to cause the 
crop to mature unevenly. 

Outlet Needed at Every Low Place — An outlet should be 
opened with the plow at every low place in the field, so as to pre- 
vent the water from standing on any part of it. Of course, these 
open furrows across a wheat field are objectionable, and interfere 
with the convenient use of machinery. But they are less objection- 
able than the loss of a crop from excess of water. 

As soon as thorough underdrainage can be accomplished, these 
open furrows may be dispensed with. I have seen heavy crops of 
wheat harvested on the flat lands. 

Preparation of the Seed-Bed — I believe that the increased 
yield of wheat during the last few years is due more to the care 
and intelligence in the matter of preparing the seed-bed than to any 
other cause. 

One important point is early plowing, and this applies especi- 
ally to the clay lands of which I have spoken as particularly adapted 
to wheat. Our farmers have found that wheat does best on a seed- 
bed that is compacted, with two or three inches of mellow soil at 
the surface, and that this can be obtained best after the land has 
been plowed for some time, and has been settled by rains. 

I have often had an opportunity to notice the difference in 
results between early and late plowing, where a farmer began plow- 
ing a field in July, and stopped when the ground become hard, and 
was unable to finish until late in September. In such instances I 
have seen in the same field a difference of ten bushels or more to 
the acre in favor of the part which was plowed early. 

Crop Proves that "Tillage is Manure."— The farmer is not 
liable to make a mistake in putting too much work on his wheat 
land in the way of mellowing and compacting. The best yield J 
ever obtained was on a field that I harrowed, rolled, and dragged 
six times between breaking and seeding. 

I fully believe in the truth of the maxim, "Tillage is manure," 
and that a soil which is kept mellow and fine for six weeks or two 
months during the heat of summer, becomes vitalized and enriched 
so as to give the young plant a thrifty start. 

It is of importance in all the work of preparing the seed-bed 
for wheat, so to arrange that the work can be done at the best 
time. During the heat of summer we usually have after each rain 
one or two cool, cloudy days. This is the time when the teams 
should be kept at work early and late. The land is moist and turns 
up easily, and a team will do twelve or even fourteen hours of work 
with less strain and worry than they will in eight hours a day a 
week later, when the ground has become dry and the mercury is 
up in the nineties. 



BEST METHODS IN SEEDING. 



41 



Pulverize When Ground Crumbles at Touch It is the same 

with the work of pulverizing. There are times when one day's 
work will accomplish more than three a little later. 

There is a time after each rain when the ground will crumble 
at a touch, and the fanner can go on his fields then with a harrow 
that will take a wide sweep, and leave it in a condition to be bene- 
fited by sun and air, and that will check the evaporation of moisture 
so that the land will not soon become dry and hard. 

If, however, he neglects this a few days until a crust forms, 
it will be impossible to get it in good order till another rain falls. 

Roll Wheat Land as Soon as Plowed.— My advice in prepar- 
ing wheat land in the summer is to roll as soon as plowed. 

At the first plowing after a rain it will do to plow a day or 
sometimes two days before rolling. But as the weather gets hot, 
and the land begins to dry, roll each half day. 

Under some circumstances it will pay to unhitch from plow and 
hitch to the roller as soon as sufficient number of furrows are 



™ — : — " — " — *^aM^^^^irr-|. ~~ frfr^g 








f v *—.... ,■ 


w 


,,'//, - ' ." T >.!%«», 


-\\ 

- p\ 



WIDE CUT BINDER AT WORK. 



plowed to make a round for the latter. I think that any farmer 
who will give this plan a fair test will never abandon it. 

It is wonderful what power of retaining moisture a fine soil 
has. A field that is at once made fine and compact with the roller 
will be put in excellent condition for seeding by a shower which 
would make no impression on a field that had been left rough 
and cloddy. 

I think there can be no beneficial chemical action in the soil 
without moisture, and the field which is allowed to be baked and 
hard for some weeks previously to seeding time, loses the cheapest 
and best source of fertility which is at the command of the farmer. 

Take Strip for Test in Pulverizing— If any of my readers 
think I am giving undue prominence to this matter of pulverizing, 
I would recommend that they test it on a strip in the field, and 
continue the experiment for a series of years, that they may hit 
both dry and wet summers. I am sure the experiment will result 
in convincing them that thorough preparation of the seed-bed is 
one of the most important points connected with the crop. 



42 FARM SCIENCE. 



There are seasons when it is impossible, on account of dry 
weather, to plow early for wheat and when the plowing must be 
done just before sowing, I would recommend that it be shallow, — 
about four inches, not more than five. A deep, loose seed-bed 
holds too much water, and if we can not have our land settled and 
compact it is best to plow only what we can thoroughly pulverize. 

I think that three inches of soil made fine and mellow, resting 
on hard unplowed land, is better than eight inches thoroughly fined. 
The seed is also liable to be covered too deeply on the loose land. 

How Compact Seed-bed Secret was Learned. — The farmers 
learned early in the forties the importance of a compact seed-bed. 
In those days we plowed our land, turning on the plowed ground 
instead of "back-furrowing" as we now do and turning on the un- 
plowed ground; and we found that always the strip of land some 
ten or twelve feet wide, on which the horses turned, gave a stronger 
growth and thriftier plant than that sown on the loose, plowed 
ground. Farmers noticing this, as a general result soon learned 
that the wheat plant required a compact seed-bed with a loose 
surface. 

Avoid Plowing Clover Under Late. — Another thing which 
must be avoided is the plowing under late in the season of a heavy 
growth of weeds or clover. During the war a man of my acquaint- 
ance, named Jones, who was a contractor, made a fortune in Gov- 
ernment work. 

Probably thinking that any one could farm, he invested in three 
choice farms in my neighborhood. For two of them he got no 
tenant the first year. These farms were all in clover but he did 
not even pasture it. He allowed the clover to grow up and fall 
down, and the second crop to grow through. 

He found a tenant in September, after the land ought to have 
been plowed and compacted, and turned under this great mass of 
clover. 

I was riding past the farm with a neighbor, and noticing how 
thoroughly the clover was turned under he said to me, "What a 
tremendous crop of wheat that farm will yield next year." 

I replied, "I predict that his wheat will not be worth cutting." 

When he asked me why, I said, "It will freeze out. He has 
plowed under this mass of green foliage so late in the season that 
it will not be decomposed and compacted before cold weather, and 
will hold water enough to kill his wheat." 

The next season, as I passed the field I saw my prediction had 
been fully verified, as his wheat was a failure. 

Too Much Clover — Too Few Feathers. — Mr. Jones made a 
mistake which was the reverse of the Irishman who heard that 
feathers made a very comfortable bed, and who caught a goose, 
pulled out a handful of feathers, put them on an oak plank and lay 
down on them for the night. But he was unable to sleep, and after 
tossing on the hard board until morning, he got up and said, "Be- 
jabbers ! if a handful of feathers is that hard, what would a whole 
bed be? I will never sleep on feathers agin." 

Mr. Jones had heard that clover was a fertilizer, but unlike 
Pat he used an overdose of it and lost his crop. 

Remove Clover by Burning or Mowing — This calls up an- 
other point, — What shall we do when we have been unable to' plow, 



BEST METHODS IN SEEDING. 43 



and our field, late in the season, is covered with a dense growth of 
weeds or clover? 

I answer, it must be removed, and there are two methods by 
which it can be done. One is by burning, if the growth is dry 
enough. The other is by mowing, and drawing it off, stacking it 
for use, and then plowing shallow and compacting it. 

The heaviest crop of wheat grown in northern Ohio several 
years ago was on a ten acre field, which made five hundred bushels 
(fifty bushels to the acre). 

The owner of the field had sown it in Mammoth Clover the 
previous year to plow under to enrich the land, but found with his 
team and plow it was utterly impossible to do it. After working 
half a day he gave it up, and, as the clover was dry and lodged, he 
touched a match to it and burned the field over, resulting in the 
yield named above. 

A Mistake of My Own in Corn and Stubble Soon after I 

began farming I concluded to try the experiment of plowing my 
corn-stubble under instead of making a mellow surface and seeding 
as had been my practice. 

I cut off the corn, made the shock-rows as far apart as possible, 
cut down the butts so that they were turned under completely out 
of sight, and I thought as I looked at it that I had never seen a 
better seed-bed, perfectly mellow, with nothing on the surface to 
interfere with the use of the drill. I congratulated myself that I 
had a chance for a record-breaking crop. But as I had allowed the 
plow to run seven or eight inches deep, I had committed the blunder 
of making a deep, loose seed-bed, and my wheat froze out and was 
not worth cutting. 

Good Crop Over Burned Wheat Stubble — My own experi- 
ence in burning off wheat-stubble was exceedingly satisfactory. I 
grew a crop on my father's farm, when I was of age. The season 
was good, and the average yield more than thirty bushels to the 
acre. 

As it was cut with the cradle, (the harvesting machine not 
having come into general use), the stubble was in many places 
nearly three feet high. The grain was so thick we could not carry 
it round to the swath with the cradle except by cutting as high 
as possible. 

I put the same field in wheat the following fall, and finding that 
I could not possibly plow under the stubble, I fired it. On a large 
part of the field the stubble burned off clean, but on the higher clay 
land where the stubble was short it only half burned, running out 
a tongue of fire here and there, leaving strips of stubble between. 

It was plowed and put into as good condition as possible, and 
sown. The wheat came up very much sooner and stronger on the 
part where the stubble had burned, and showed until winter set in 
a marked increase of growth over that where the stubble had been 
plowed under. 

Fire an Effective Cutworm Destroyer. — A few years later 
I burned off a stubble field in the spring that I was plowing for 
corn. I had plowed an acre or two before firing the stubble, and 
then applied the match because I could not turn it under properly, 
and learned another fact with regard to firing, which was that it 
destroyed the cutworms entirely. The acre or two that had been 



44 FARM SCIENCE. 



plowed early was nearly eaten up by cutworms, while not a single 
hill was touched on the part that had been burned over. 

Compacting More Important in Prairie Land.— The reader 
will understand that all my experience in growing wheat has been 
on clay upland soil, and my instruction about making the seed-bed 
compact would be of still greater importance on the loose prairie 
or bottom soil. While in Nebraska some years ago, I found soil 
of the part I visited so loose that the wind blew the wheat out 
by the roots, and winter wheat could hardly be raised at all on this 
account. 

I think this condition could have been avoided by pasturing 
the land, so that the tramping of the cattle would compact it, then 
preparing the seed-bed with a harrow, making only a shallow seed- 
bed, just enough to cover the grain. 

This compacting of the soil enables the grain to root in the 
hard ground, and thus to escape the perils of winter freezing and 
the blowing winds of the prairies. For while the compact seed-bed 
has proved to be the proper thing and exceedingly important on clay 
upland, it is much more so on loose prairie or bottom lands. 

Importance of Selecting Clean Seed Wheat.-— Too little atten- 
tion is given by farmers generally to the selection of their seed 
wheat. 

On many farms wheat is sown year after year which contains 
a large per cent of rye, chess or cockle and in which there seems to 
be an admixture of different varieties, the latter may be no dis- 
advantage and some farmers prefer to sow mixed seed, thinking 
it produces better than a single variety. But there is little excuse 
for sowing seed that is foul. 

One of the best ways in which the farmer can remedy this 
matter is by setting apart a certain plot, it may be an acre more 
or less on which to grow stock seed. All our seedsmen select 
stock seed for their own planting and in this way keep up the 
quality of all their products. 

It is well to inspect your wheat fields thoroughly before decid- 
ing whether your varieties are satisfactory. If not, take a day and 
drive through your neighborhood and examine the wheat grown 
and from the best engage a small quantity of stock seed. It is a 
well established fact that wheat should not have too radical a 
change of climate or soil. 

Learn Everything to be Known About Variety. — When you 
select the seed to begin this experiment question the grower and 
learn all you can about the variety. Whether it stands up well. 
As to its time of ripening and ability to endure wet weather after 
harvest. Weight of grain and plumpness. Liability to shatter when 
over-ripe. Some kinds will shatter badly when others would not 
waste at all. 

Probably a two bushel sack full will be enough seed for this ex- 
periment as if it does not do well the less the better, and if it proves 
all right this amount will grow enough seed for a large field an- 
other year. 

When you have found a variety that suits you, sow an experi- 
mental plot each year until you have eliminated everything that 
is not satisfactory from your seed and have established the variety 
that suits von. 



BEST METHODS IN SEEDING. 45 



Some would prefer paying high prices to advertisers of wheat 
rather than go to this trouble but I believe for seed to grow on your 
own soil you can establish a variety yourself that will be of more 
value to you. 

When you sow this selected seed the second year go over your 
plot from which you are intending to save your seed wheat for the 
ensuing year and pull out all objectionable mixtures. If your 
variety is bald cut out all bearded heads and remove all cockle, 
chess, rye or anything that will injure your seed. 

How Shall the Wheat be Sown?— No money is better spent 
on the farm than in the purchase of the best Wheat Drill on the 
market. There is no question that the advantages of the use of 
the drill are many and paramount. 

First, it puts the wheat in so that it all comes up, the seed being 
distributed evenly. The depth of covering can be regulated by the 
use of the drill, and long experience has shown that shallow cover- 
ing gives the strongest growth of plant. 

I give here a table showing the result of experiments made by 
the Agricultural College at Lansing, Mich., which emphasizes the 
advantage of shallow covering. 

I would recommend from one inch to one and one-half. In the 

table given the first column shows the depth of planting, the second 

the time that elapsed between planting and the appearance of the 

plant above the soil, and the third the proportion of the seed that 

grew 

Proportion of seed 

Depth. Time in coming up. that grew. 

% 
all 

% 

M 
% 
H 

Vs 

Plant Weakened by Deep Sowing — It was also noticeable 
that the plants from the deep-sown wheat were weak and lacked 
vigor, they had rooted at the bottom, and later put out a new set 
of roots near the surface, and the stem below rotted off, leaving 
the plants to start a new growth from the second set of roots, which 
of course made it later, and weakened the plants. This would not 
have been the case with wheat drilled at the proper depth. 

Small Ridges Between Rows Hold the Snow — Another, and 
perhaps the greatest advantage of all in drilling, is that the ground 
is left in small ridges between the wheat-rows, and these hold the 
snow so that often a light snow will protect the plant in the furrows, 
and during the freezing and thawing of mild days the earth is 
continually crumbling down around the roots of the wheat sown 
in the depression between the drills. 

Some farmers have practiced dragging the land after the wheat 
was sown with the drill, but in doing this they lose the advantage 
of the drilling as above mentioned. 

All rolling and harrowing should be done before the wheat is 
sown. 

How Much Seed Shall We Sow to the Acre? — I conducted a 
series of experiments with Fultz wheat many years ago, this variety 



y 2 


inch 


i 


a 


2 


ft 


3 


it 


4 


a 


5 


it 


6 


it 



n coming up. 


n 


days 


12 


« 


18 


a 


20 


a 


21 


a 


22 


a 


23 


a 



46 FARM SCIENCE. 



having a small grain, and I reached the conclusion then that one 
bushel of seed to the acre was sufficient to produce a heavy crop. 

One year I sowed two acres adjoining with this wheat, using a 
bushel of seed on the first acre and one-half bushel only on the 
second. When it came up the lighter seeding looked thin on the 
ground, but as the ground was in excellent order, and the wheat 
sown early, before fall no difference could be detected between the 
two. The two acres produced seventy bushels from one hundred 
and three shocks, fifty-one of which grew on one acre and fifty-two 
on the other. 

From this and other experiments I settled the question for my- 
self, that on my soil, and with this variety of wheat, one bushel of 
seed to the acre was ample. 

After reading the experiments which have been carried on for 
many years at our Station, however, I modify this conclusion as 
the Station publishes from year to year that it finds very nearly 
two' bushels to the acre gives the maximum yield. Knowing, as I 
do, how careful and accurate these experiments are, I am obliged 
to give up my theory of light seeding, although during the period 
of my experiments I averaged with the best wheat-growers of the 
neighborhood, who sowed from one or two pecks more of seed to 
the acre than I did. 

What Varieties of AYheat Shall We Sow? — Every year new 
varieties of wheat are advertised, about the yield of which marvel- 
ous stories are told. Often men are led to invest in a large amount 
to sow their entire crop with the new and high-priced varieties. 
This I believe always to' be a mistake. 

The conditions of soil may be very different on your land from that 
which produced the big crops. It is better to sow a small amount 
and test it one or two years before changing to a new variety. In 
doing this I would limit the new variety to a single sack. If this 
proves valuable you will save enough from it to sow a large acre- 
age the second year. If it makes a failure, it is too much rather 
than too little. 

It will require more than one year to test all the qualities of a 
new variety of wheat. An illustration of this in my own experi- 
ence was that I bought two bushels of Clawson wheat several years 
ago, it being recommended as a wonderful yielder. I noticed that 
it came up in about four days less time than the Fultz, and grew 
rapidly, so that the ground was soon green and covered with 
wheat. I was greatly pleased with it until the ensuing harvest, 
when a long period of wet weather prevailed. Before long my 
Clawson was growing green in the shock, while the Fulz wheat 
did not sprout at all. If the wet weather had lasted a few days 
longer my crop would have been greatly damaged. I dropped the 
Clawson from my list. This shows that a single season is not 
sufficient to test a new variety of wheat, as there is more than yield 
to be taken into account. 

Time of Sowing and Enemies of the Wheat Crop. — My ex- 
perience shows me that there are several causes for a poor crop or 
failure. These are the Hessian fly, rust, and the conditions of 
temperature and rainfall. There may be other causes, as hail, but 
this is always local, and usually extends over only a few farms. 

Taking up the question of the Hessian fly, it often destroys or 
greatly injures the wheat over a large territory, yet I believe that 
intelligence will enable us largely to prevent loss from it. 



BEST METHODS IN SEEDING. 



47 



Some of our experiment stations have published maps of their 
States, divided off, and recommend a particular time of sowing to 
avoid the fly. These are based on the history of the work of the 
fly for many years, the time it puts in its work, and when the work 
on the young plant ceases. 

These I have not found, however, a safe guide, as other ques- 
tions come in to complicate the matter. For example the ques- 
tions both of temperature and rainfall affect the work of this insect. 
In trying to avoid loss from the fly, one may meet with a greater 
one from questions which are not considered in recommending a 
certain time of sowing, and which are to a great extent entirely 
beyond the control of the farmer. 

Weather a Very Uncertain Factor — The trouble is here, that 
no man can foretell the weather for even a week ahead, and the 
seasons vary so greatly, that what would be successful in one year 
would prove fatal in another. 

For example, one fall we had a drought which lasted during 




M'CORMICK SELF BINDER. 



the entire fall, with only two showers during the month of Sep- 
tember. 

Those whose land had been pulverized well, and who 1 sowed 
immediately after the first shower, had a good stand and fine growth 
of wheat, the second shower coming about a week later, continu- 
ing the growth. But those whose land was not in condition to 
receive the seed then, failed to get a good growth, and their wheat 
went into winter with no protection from the growing crop and 
made a very light crop for the ensuing year. 

The next fall we had a sufficient rainfall, but cold weather came 
on early in October, and the growth was very small and weak. 

I have often had wheat that seemed to be so full of fly that 
it was likely to be ruined, but which made more than an average 
crop. I recall a few years ago when our farmers' club met in May 
on a good wheat farm, that the members went out and examined 
the wheat fields, and found the fly very prevalent through all the 
wheat growing on the farm. But the crop was far above the aver- 
age. 



48 FARM SCIENCE. 



Importance of Good Growth in the Fall — One of the most 
important things connected with the fall wheat crop is that it shall 
make a good growth in the fall to protect the roots, and prevent 
winter-killing. 

In trying to avoid the fly by late sowing, if the fall proves 
unfavorable for growth we fail to get a vigorous plant and a growth 
of blades to protect the roots. As temperature is entirely beyond 
the control of man, he always runs a risk with his wheat crop in 
planting late, though it may produce the best results. 

I recall a few years ago that I sowed the eighth day of Octo- 
ber a field of wheat. The whole month of October gave a high 
temperature and sufficient rainfall, and I had a magnificent growth 
and a yield of thirty bushels to the acre. My own experience 
teaches me that I would rather take the risk of the fly, and sow my 
wheat not later than the 20th of September, than to postpone the 
seeding until into October in order to avoid the fly. 

Trapping Ply hy Rye Strip Around Field — At our Farm- 
ers' Institute held recently, a wheat-grower recommended the seed- 
ing with rye, the latter part of August or first of September, a few 
rods wide surrounding the wheat field. He said that the fly would 
deposit all its eggs in this, and then it could be plowed under in 
the spring for potatoes. He is a large potato-raiser, and as an 
additional advantage he found that potatoes never were scabby 
planted in land where a heavy growth of rye had been plowed 
under. 

This seems to me, if true (and I do not dispute it), a very 
important fact in connection with the destructive work of the fly, 
and the saving of the wheat, with the added advantage of clean, 
saleable potatoes and a heavy yield. 

Let us remember that the fly will destroy the wheat if it is of 
weak, feeble growth, when by early sowing, thorough preparation 
of the seed-bed, and an application of fertilizer, we may raise a very 
profitable crop of wheat in spite o'f it. 

The Seeding of Spring Grains — In the seeding of spring 
grains, I think it of first importance to sow as early as possible. 
Occasionally there is a season when oats sown in April yield a 
maximum crop. But as a rule, the nearer the first of March we 
can come to sowing in this latitude, the heavier the yield will be, 
and the better the quality of the grain. 

In this connection I will say that formerly I had great trouble 
in getting a stand of clover with spring grain, but it was not 
because the seed did not germinate and start well ; the plant was 
so shaded as to become spindling, and was often killed by the hot 
sun soon after harvest. 

In those days I sowed oats broadcast. For the last ten years, 
however, I have followed the rule of drilling always, and have had 
no difficulty in getting a good stand of clover. 

I find also that fertilizing the oats not only increases the crop, 
but also' adds to the vitality and vigor of the clover. In cutting 
the oats the sickle should be raised, as if cut close to the ground 
it takes off all the foliage and leaves only the bare stems, which 
are likely to be killed by the summer heat. Clover that has been 
sowed on drilled grain grows much stronger, as it is little shaded 
until it has become well rooted. 

My success with the grasses is much better when sown in the 
fall, and careful experience has shown that if sown without a 



49 



BEST METHODS IN SEEDING. 



the first year, therefore I have adopted this plan of seeding the 
grasses. I will have something to say about the legumes, their 
value and needs, in observations on fertility and fertilizing. 

The Utilization of By-Products — This age is noted for utiliz- 
ing what was formerly wasted. 

The by-products of the beef pay all the expense of slaughter- 
ing and packing, and leave a handsome profit beside. 

The by-products of wheat are straw and chaff, and any one 
who will estimate the amount of loss from the wasteful manage- 
ment of these things will be astonished at the result — and they are 
two products of the farm that are more generally wasted than any 
other. 

There are still localities where the wheat is threshed in the field 
nurse-crop they will make a large yield and profitable crop of hay 
year after year, and the straw is left on the ground slowly to 
decay. Not only is it absolutely lost, as far as any valuable service 

is concerned, but it often covers a large area of land which cannot 




OSBORNE SELF BINDER IN THE FIELD. 

be cultivated until the straw is either removed by slow decay, and 
spread for manure, or burned on the field. 

There are large neighborhoods where the practice is universal 
of threshing and not even stacking the straw, but leaving it spread 
out over one-eighth to one-quarter of an acre each year, adding 
to the loss of the straw the loss of the use of the land on which 

it lies. 

How Straw May be Made Profitable — Perhaps the majority 
of farmers do not know that the average weight of the chaff and 
straw that will produce one hundred bushels of wheat (which 
weighs 3 tons) is 6 tons. So that you can estimate the number of 
tons of your straw and chaff from knowing how many bushels of 
wheat have been produced. 

I wish to suggest how this straw can be made profitable. If 
you will refer to a work on Agricultural Chemistry, you will find 
that straw contains much valuable food, but that it is an unpalat- 
able ration, so that fed by itself it is of little value. 



50 FARM SCIENCE. 



I remember in my younger days when cattle were often win- 
tered on straw alone, to which they helped themselves from the 
stack from fall until spring. It was common then for cattle to be- 
come so poor that if they got down they would have to be helped 
up, and many of them would die from starvation. 

A careful study of this question leads me to believe that on a 
farm where a large amount of wheat is grown, it is not necessary 
to feed any hay to the stock, or at least very little. But the farmer 
should utilize his straw, and to do this he must add the elements 
of food that are deficient, so that the straw will become more 
nearly a balanced ration than it is when fed alone. 

Brine Will Make Straw Palatable. — The straw lacks two 
things : it lacks palatability, and also the nutritious elements of 
food which would enable the animals to digest and assimilate it 
almost or quite as well as good hay. 

I have long believed that a ration can be constructed largely 
of straw, and made both palatable and nutritious, so' that animals 
fed on it will come through almost if not quite as well as if fed 
on good hay. 

To make the straw ration palatable, it is only necessary to 
sprinkle it with brine daily when put into the racks. If the brine 
is made strong, the sprinkling can be light; if weaker, more can be 
given. This also I believe from long experience adds to the digesti- 
bility of it. 

As a dairy-man I know that the dairy cow that receives a 
moderate ration of salt every day is seldom off her feed, and cleans 
up her ration and digests it much better than if salt is not given in 
some form. 

Nitrogenous Food Adds to Digestibility — In addition to this, 
the digestibility of the ration is largely increased by adding some 
highly nitrogenous food. I have figured out from my own experi- 
ence that cattle that receive sixty pounds each of straw daily, and 
in addition, oil meal and bran for the grain ration, will come out 
in the spring as well as cattle that are fed on the best of hay. 

On many farms twenty horses and grown cattle are wintered 
yearly, and, if fed entirely on hay for their rough feed, about forty 
tons will be consumed by them between fall and spring. When hay 
will sell, as it frequently does, at from $10 to' $12 per ton, a large 
saying can be made by substituting the straw ration with such 
mixture as will properly balance it. Forty tons of hay if sold will 
make a large addition to the income, and your straw that is not 
consumed will be reduced to rich manure, as it absorbs all the 
liquid, and can be applied to the wheat and grass fields, largely in- 
creasing their yield and profit. 

When to Manure and Fertilize for Wheat — To begin with, 
I am a believer in keeping manure under cover ; but if thrown 
under cover and left loose, it soon heats, drives off the nitrogen, and 
burns so that it is of little value, and very difficult to spread evenly. 
The best way to manage manure is to' clean out the stalls daily, 
and distribute the manure evenly in a covered shed, keeping on it 
dehorned cattle. 

The reason I say "dehorned" cattle is this that when dehorned 
they will all crowd into the manure shed and tramp it thoroughly 
while if not dehorned a few of the leaders will keep the rest out 



BEST METHODS IN SEEDING. 51 



and they will not only suffer from exposure but the manure will 
not be put into as good condition for spreading. 

Then an experiment which has been largely carried out at the 
Ohio Experiment Station shows that it adds greatly to the value 
of this manure if each day it is sprinkled with ground phosphate 
which has not been treated with acid but is put on in the stalls or 
in the manure shed every day at the rate of about one pound to 
the animal. The natural acid in the manure causes this to de- 
compose, and the phosphorous to become available. 

When treated in this way the amount of manure to the acre 
may be largely reduced and yet better results obtained from it than 
if the manure were taken directly from the stable or barnyard and 
spread. 

An application of eight tons to the acre of this manure gives 
excellent results, especially if it can be applied with the manure- 
spreader, which will disintegrate it and spread it evenly all over 
the surface. 

By the use of this a large increase in the yield of wheat and 
other crops is made. 

I prefer drawing out manure for wheat after harvest . and 
spreading on the plowed land. This will avoid any tramping of 
the land to injure it or pack it by wagoning over it too much in 
places as at this season of the year it dries out and packs solidly 
very soon and the manure will be much more available for the 
young plants than if plowed under deeply. 

The Use of Commercial Fertilizers — It seems to me that this 
article would be incomplete without something about the use of 
commercial fertilizers. Like many other innovations the use of 
commercial fertilizers had to fight its way into favor. Some of 
our most intelligent farmers scoffed at the idea of a single sack 
of fertilizer doing any good and denounced it as a humbug and 
swindle to get the farmer's hard earned dollars from him. It was 
not until they had visible proof on the farms of their neighbors 
that they finally began its use. 

In Highland County, Ohio, I passed a wheat field half of 
which had been fertilized the previous year with a single hundred 
pound sack to the acre of commercial fertilizer. This half aver- 
aged thirty-six bushels of wheat to the acre and the other half 
eighteen, no possible difference between the two except this appli- 
cation of fertilizer. 

Test on Piece of Run-down Sorghum Land — My first ex- 
perience with commercial fertilizers, something over thirty years 
ago, was on poor ground. I had put a piece of run-down land 
in sorghum which made a small growth and light yield. Wishing 
to make a test plot of it I manured with good stable manure one 
strip and sowed bone meal broadcast on the remainder of the plot 
with the exception of a twelve foot strip through the middle. The 
stable manure made a good showing in the fall as the wheat made 
growth enough to furnish considerable protection to the roots. In 
the fall no difference could be seen between the plot on which bone 
meal had been used and the untreated strip. 

I was unusually late in going to sow clover on it in the spring, 
as I did not apply the seed until April. To my astonishment when 
I got within twenty or thirty rods of the field I could see a dark 
green color and a rank growth on the fertilized strip which was a 
gratifying sight. 



52 FARM SCIENCE. 



At harvest time the unmanured strip was very poor the growth 
being a foot shorter than that fertilized with the bone meal and 
heads only an inch long while the plot treated with bone meal had 
large well filled heads and plump grain and made about twelve 
bushels to the acre while that unfertilized was not worth cutting. 

Keeping in mind the fact that this was very poor land and 
that wheat seldom does well after sorghum this yield of twelve 
bushels per acre was good. 

I have frequently in passing a field on which commercial fer- 
tilizer had been used, seen where the fertilizer drill had run empty 
a few rods from the end and you could note at a distance of several 
rods. 

Another thing which I have noticed is that when you get the 
right combination of elements in your fertilizer the wheat on the 
fertilized plot will ripen a week or more earlier than that which 
has not been treated. Every farmer knows that early ripened grain 
gives much better results and is plumper than that which ripens 
later. 

I need not amplify this further for in most localities where 
fertilizers have been used there is no question about their value. 
One should study his soil and experiment until he finds what ele- 
ments give the best results and then use them. 



b' 



The Use of the Legumes in Farming — These include not 
only all the clovers, but cow peas, soja beans, Canada field peas, 
and some other crops; wonderful advantage in maintaining fer- 
tility and increasing the yield of crops has been thus obtained. 

The first piece of wheat I sowed when I began farming for my- 
self was a seven acre field, on one-half of which I sowed clover. 
In the fall the yield of clover was so light, the season not having 
been favorable, that I did not think it would pay to leave it, and 
so plowed the entire field for wheat again. 

I do not think there would have been 500 pounds on an acre 
if it had been pulled up root and branch and weighed green. But 
within two weeks after I had sowed the wheat, standing at the side 
of the field you could see to a foot where the clover had been 
plowed under. The wheat came up quicker and stronger-, and 
started into better growth. 

I then laid down this rule, which I have observed ever since, 
that no man can afford to allow any ground in small grain to go 
without clover. The legumes are the cheapest of all fertilizers, 
and the greatest possible help in maintaining fertility. In another 
place I have told of the methods to be used to get a good stand of 
clover on spring grain by drilling the grain instead of broadcast- 
ing it. 

Waldo F. Brown, 
Oxford, Ohio. 



Small Grain Growing 

MAGNITUDE OF THE INDUSTRY— DEVELOPMENT OF 
NEW VARIETIES— VARIETAL DIFFERENCES, ETC. 



By Willet M. Hayes 




EVEN Farinaceous Small Grains. — Excluding 
corn, the big king of the cereals, we have seven 
farinaceous grains which for the purpose of this 
article we shall call the small grains. 

These with their respective values for 1899, 
as shown by the Twelfth Census, are :- Wheat, 
$370,000,000; Oats, $217,000,000; Barley, $42,000,- 
000; Rye, $12,000,000; Rice, $8,000,000 ; Buckwheat, 
$6,000,000; while for the millets or non-saccharine 
sorghums, the value was not determined. 

As shown by the figures for the crop of 1905 
published in December by the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture the values of these crops had grown, 
respectively, to the following: Wheat, $518,000,000; Oats, %2yy,- 
000,000; Barley, $55,000,000; Rye, $17,000,000; Rice, $12,000,000; 
Buckwheat, $8,500,000. 

Wheat the Golden Queen of the Harvests.— Men are en- 
chanted with the sowing of wheat seeds, with harvesting the golden 
fields of grain, with the hum of the great threshing machine, 
with the movement of the great cars and ships laden with the 
trillions of berries, with the burring of the mighty mills, with the 
mysteries of the bake oven, and with the never cloying pleasures of 
white bread covered with June-yellow butter. 

If a grain of wheat could tell the story of its brothers, sisters, 
father, mother, uncles and aunts, and its other relatives near and 
remote, it would equal any fair}' talc. 

One kind of berry would tell of its origin in England, another 
in France, another in Germany, and perchance another in Russia ; 
each with its forbears back in some remote neighborhood, or may 
be in still another country, with possibly a legend as to its un- 
known wild parentage. 

Until in recent decades the history of the varieties of wheat, 
and of the other cereals is not of record. No doubt selection by 
man in more or less of a blundering way has gone on for many 
centuries. Hybridizing, by natural agencies, also may have occa- 
sionally occurred often enough to aid materially in making new 
varieties, by blending the good qualities of two or more parent 
kinds. 

Few Varieties in World's Great Wheat Crop — At present 
there are thousands of varieties of wheat, most of which have been 
originated in recent years by wheat breeders working with more 
or less of system. But the world's great crop of wheat is nearly all 
produced by a few dozen varieties. 

S3 



54 FARM SCIENCE. 



The fingers of both hands would enumerate the main varieties 
in this country, each of which spreads over not more than several 

states. 

In Europe likewise there is a group of several varieties of 
wheat which make the bulk of the crop. And it is so with the other 
cereals, there is a relatively small number of dominating varieties. 

Though the recent great activity in breeding wheat is origin- 
ating thousands, if not tens of thousands of new selected and new 
hybrid wheats, this work is done with such care that only the 
relatively few best will escape the hands of the experiment station 
or other trained breeders. 

Small Yield in America a National Disgrace — That Amer- 
ican wheat yields an average of less than fifteen bushels per acre 
is a national disgrace which can be cured by using two means : 

The betterment of the soil conditions under which the crop 
may yield more. 




MILWAUKEE SELF BINDER IN OPERATION. 



The improvement of the yielding power of the varieties planted. 

Since the improvement of the fields may be discussed at once 
for all six of the small grains, that will be taken up first, and the 
breeding of each crop will be dealt with more in detail under the 
respective species. 

Our national average yield of wheat should be increased from 
fifteen to twenty-five bushels per acre. By better preparation of 
the land five bushels of this increase can be gained and by wheat 
breeding the other five bushels. 

More Careful Crop Rotation to Pay the Cost — The five 
bushels gain from better organized field and farm management will 
probably cost three dollars annually ; and this must be paid by the 
grower" in a more carefully managed scheme of crop rotation, in 
fertilizers and in cleaner and better intercultural tillage of the hoed 
crops with which the wheat alternates in the rotation. 

The five bushels from breeding and good seed will not cost 
ten cents an acre, and of this the national and state governments 
will pay part for breeding work on experiment farms. The farm- 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 55 



er's part in obtaining seed of the new varieties and in raising, car- 
ing for and preparing his seed will not be appreciably greater than 
now 

Place of Grains in the Rotation — Wheat and other small 
grains are somewhat sensitive to the condition in which the pre- 
vious crop left the soil. They do not thrive well after a crop of 
small grain. In many cases they will yield twenty or thirty per 
cent more after a hoed crop, as corn or potatoes, or after a crop 
of grass, clover or alfalfa than after a small grain crop. 

Though these grains are benefited by a direct application of 
either barn or commercial fertilizer on poor soils, they are often 
injured by the application of barn manure on rich soils. 

Generally barnyard manure will give more final returns by the 
acre to the farm if applied to a previous cultivated crop as corn, 
or even to the grass crop, in rotation ; the wheat, oats, barley or 
other grain thus receive the residual effect. 

Barnyard manure often overdoes the small grain crop by caus- 
ing it to grow heavy in the straw and to lodge and produce light, 
shrunken grain though it helps without injuring the other crops 
mentioned. 

Some of the Best Plans cf Rotation — A good five-year 
rotation for grain in some of the states of the Middle Northwest 
is first year, small grain ; second and third years, meadow and past- 
ure of grasses and clovers seeded the first year with the grain ; 
fourth year, small grain; fifth year, corn, applying the manure 
before the corn crop; then, beginning the second five-year period, 
repeat the rotation. 

A four-year rotation found useful on some farms is as follows : 
first year, small grain; second year, red clover; third year, small 
gram ; fourth year, corn : and repeat. 

A three-year rotation as follows gives splendid conditions for 
the wheat or other small grain : First year, small grain ; second 
year, red clover ; third year, corn : and repeat. 

Small grain and corn in a two-year rotation place the land in 
good condition for each crop of grain. 

In the South cotton and cowpeas can take the place of the 
corn and clover in a four, three, or two-year rotation ; and in many 
cases the cowpeas may follow the winter wheat, making two crops 
in one year, thus shortening the rotation by gaining one year in 
the four or three-year rotation. 

By following some such method of natural farming the legu- 
minous crops help to add nitrogen and organic substance to the 
soil surface of weeds and will provide the rather well compacted 
furrow slice needed to cause the small grain plant to stool well 
and to thrive throughout its growth. 

Other Crops Benefited by Rotation Scheme. — That the rota- 
tion scheme is not all to favor the small grain crop may be shown 
in case of the five-year rotation first named. 

The wheat, by serving as a nurse crop among which the newly 
seeded grass and clover may pass their first unproductive season 
without cost, prepares the land for the two crops of grass. The grass 
crops by cleaning, resting and enriching the soil prepare the land 
for a good crop of small grain the fourth year. The second crop 
of small grain which may often be followed with a crop of rye or 



56 FARM SCIENCE. 



turnips sown in spring to make pasturage among the grain stubble 
in autumn, furnishes conditions under which the manure may be 
hauled out and plowed under in fall, winter or spring in prepara- 
tion for the corn crop. The corn grown the fifth year reduces the 
manure from too great activity, clears the surface soil and compacts 
the furrow slice so that it is in nearly ideal conditions under which 
the small grain may be put in with shoe or hoe drill or broadcast 
and disked in or covered with other suitable implement, and the 
second series of fine yearly crops started out in good condition. 

Chemical Fertilizer Tests Not Expensive — But it is not ex- 
pensive to make trials of chemical fertilizers on a given farm, or 
on a given soil type. Thus a farmer, or a group of co-operating 
farmers can easily test their soils. 

Corn is a splendid crop to use in the North, and corn or cot- 
ton in the South. The plots may be marked and the marks pre- 
served for a year so that the residual effect on the following crop 
of grain may be observed, provided the effect is marked. 

In making the trial with corn the following general plan may 
be pursued : Apply to plots three or more rows wide and ten or 
more rods long, on land where uniform plots may be obtained 
with alternating check plots not manured between, such amounts 
of nitrogenous, phosphoric and potash fertilizers and lime as may 
be advised by the agriculturist of your state experiment station; 
and follow his instructions as to time and manner of application 
also. 

When the corn or cotton is ripe harvest the fertilized plots 
and the check plots separately and measure or weigh so as to de- 
termine whether the fertilizer gave any additional yield. It is 
wise to have one or two alley rows between each two plots, be- 
cause corn roots reach over across the row, often extending five 
feet from the hill. 

If these preliminary trials show that the soil is weak along any 
one line of plant food, or needs time to correct acidity, the ex- 
periments should be continued along that line to determine how 
much fertilizers to use and to which crop in the rotation to apply 
them. 

Allotment of Land to United States Crops This country 

has about a billion acres in farms, half of which is improved land 
and half unimproved. 

Of the 500,000,000 acres of improved land corn covers about 
100,000,000 acres and the small cereals a similar amount, while 
cotton covers a third as much as corn, and grass lands for hay and 
summer forage cover two-thirds as much as corn. 

There is probably nearly 200.000,000 acres in grass, and a total 
of 300,000,000 acres in all other fields, orchard and garden crops. 

Thus of the 500,000,000 improved acres we have 200,000,000 
acres in pasture grasses, 100,000,000 in corn, 100,000,000 in small 
cereals, 100,000,000 acres in hay, summer forage, potatoes, beans 
and other minor field crops and the more intensified crops of the 
orchard and garden. 

Cereals from Canada to the Gulf — Cereal growing extends 
from the Canadian partition fence down nearly to the Gulf of 
Mexico, and from Maine to California, and our Dominion brethren 
grow wheat some distance northward in their broad estate, espec- 
ially in the expansive plains west and northwest of Winnipeg. 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 



57 



In the Euroasiatic Continent there is a similar band of small 
cereal areas which extends from far north in the Scandinavian 
^Peninsula and in Northern Russia down past the Holy Land and 
even into elevated regions in India. 

•There is a temperate zonal strip in the southern hemisphere 
also, where the cereal band crosses Southern South America, 
Southern Africa, and Southern Australasia and including many 
islands. 

Where it Pays Best to Raise Cereals — On what part of 
Uncle Sam's estate does the cultivation of the small cereals most 
naturally belong? Only a small part of the wheat, oats and barley 
should be grown below Mason and Dixon's line, because the yield 
is not sufficiently large to justify it in comparison with values pro- 
duced by crops of cotton, corn, rice, cowpeas and garden and 
orchard crops. 




PLANO BINDER AT WORK. 



Above that line and well toward the Canadian border winter 
wheat yields moderate value to the acre. It here holds a splendid 
place in the rotation, because it follows corn so well, requires labor 
at a time of year when other crops are not suffering and serves 
as a nurse crop for clover and grass seeds planted to make a crop 
the following year. 

Along the northern border and over in Canada spring wheat 
takes the place of the winter wheat, though its average value to 
the acre is even lower. 

Oats do not thrive well so far south as does winter wheat, 
not having been as yet bred for hot summer weather, but some 
will be grown nearly to the Gulf; and the barley zone is still fur- 
ther north than the oats. 

Rye sown in the autumn is hardy to the northern counties of 
the United States and thrives south to Mason and Dixon's line. 
The millets and nonsaccharine sorghums are grown well to the 
north and kaffir corn has an especial usefulness on the droughty 
plains where it produces grain with light rainfall. 



53 FARM SCIENCE. 



Great Advance in Rice Growing in America. — Rice on the 
other hand has a distinctly southern habitat and is local. The rice 
area recently has mainly moved from the Atlantic Coast States to 
Louisiana and Texas and its area has greatly extended. Its method 
of cultivation too has radically changed, and it has now come under 
America's broad plan of farming by machinery. Rice has been 
made more plentiful and cheaper. Broader acres, machinery, bet- 
ter varieties and better knowledge of methods of cultivation have 
revolutionized rice growing in the last five years. 

Flax is not one of the cereals, but as it is grown at the same 
place in the rotation, requires the same preparation of the soil and 
affects the land in much the same way as do the small cereals, its 
cultivation may be discussed with theirs. 

It is certain that economic factors have determined the present 
distribution of the small cereals: 

In North Dakota, for example, wheat, oats, flax, barley and 
millet seed pay better than corn; therefore the farmers are con- 
strained to grow as large an acreage of these money crops as is 
consistent with keeping their lands free of weeds, in good mechan- 
ical condition for grain, strong in fertility and otherwise in con- 
dition for good crops of these grains. 

Alternation With Fallow in Semi-arid West Out in the 

Western semi-arid regions, instead of rotating the grains with corn 
and grasses they alternate them with the bare fallow, thus to 
keep down weeds, to secure good mechanical preparation of the 
furrow slice, but especially to conserve the water of the alternate 
year so as to supply the growing crop with the surplus water of two 
years instead of one. 

The frequent droughts, too, make frequent seeding to clovers 
and grasses uncertain, so that the plan in these western, northwest- 
ern parts is to grow grain for some years continuously and then 
to seed to grass for some years, possibly injecting one crop of corn 
in among the crops of grain. 

Thus a rotation is arranged as follows : First and second 
years grain; third, fourth and fifth years grass and clover; sixth 
and seventh years grain ; eighth year corn ; then repeat by eight- 
year rotation period. 

Stock Feed More Profitable in Iowa — In Iowa, on the other 
hand where corn, mainly fed to live stock, and pastures of clover 
and grasses, yield more value to the acre, the grains are being 
crowded down to a limited area. 

There these crops are often chosen because of the need of a 
nurse crop to produce during the year of seeding the timothy and 
clover sown for hay or pasture following seasons. And though 
wheat and flax do not average as much value to' the acre as corn 
and oats, barley and rye do not produce as much feed value to the 
acre as corn or grass ; and though all these small grain crops de- 
plete the soil more than crops of corn or grass yet in limited areas 
they round out the farm management plan. 

If we can sell more live stock products, even at prices recently 
prevailing, Iowa and surrounding States can afford still further to 
reduce the acreage of these soil consuming, weed increasing crops, 
unless prices for these commodities increase. The world needs 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 59 



the amount of cereals now grown, but other countries where labor 
is not so dear are willing to produce them at a rather low price to 
the acre and to the worker. 

Only better varieties for each and all of the many localities, 
better preparation of soil by rotation, good cultivation and cheap 
effective fertilization will make it practicable to retain our present 
acreage. 

Handicap in Competition With Live Stock Live stock and 

the crops they require are a paying proposition with which grains 
for sale must compete. They have two great handicaps, they bring 
in less money and they leave the soil impoverished instead of richer. 

As a matter of practical business most of the small grains in 
American agriculture are produced in connection with live stock 
products. By alternating them with the crops fed to live stock the 
land is prepared for the grains ; often at the expense of the future 
crops for live stocks. 

From Illinois eastward and southward commercial fertilizers 
are gradually coming into extensive use, placing the production 
of these crops on the same basis as that on which grains are grown 
in much of Europe. And the use of commercial fertilizers for this 
purpose will of necessity gradually extend westward and to other 
regions where the lands are now new. 

The world will not rapidly change the proportionate amounts 
of cereal and live stock products it demands, and these, the one 
competing with the other, will each regulate the price of the other. 

The great cities which consume the surplus of these products 
keep bowling along in their growth and in their ever-increasing 
ability per capita to purchase meat as well as bread. 

The world's most rapid expansion of acreages of grain and live 
stock production was passed during the earlier years of railway 
and steamship transportation when the body of the world's great 
continental prairies was upturned with the plow. 

The next expansion of production will no doubt be largely 
due to the better farm methods and the better breeds and varieties 
which the bounding growth of agricultural science is ready to bring 
forth. 

Every Farmer Should Plan His Campaign Every farmer 

should work out his own farm scheme, map it out on paper where 
he can project it forward ten years or more under a definite rota- 
tion system. 

When the ten years is up, the record of yields for each year 
placed in ten annual farm maps will enable him to average the 
several crops and determine what each yielded to the acre. 

Before that time his state experiment station will probably 
have given him items of average cost so that he can calculate the 
average cost to the acre of each kind of crop. 

By balancing accounts he will be able to tell what was the net 
profit or loss of each kind of grain grown and of each kind of 
crop fed to live stock. His neighbors also' will have begun more 
of system and many of their figures will serve to guide his future 
operations. 

Let the farmer block out his farm scheme, submit it to farmer 
friends for criticism, and finally send copies to the professor of 
agriculture in his state agricultural college, who may be able to 
give advice as to kind of crops in the rotation ; as to the plan of 
rotation; also as to the preparation and fertilization of the soil. 



00 FARM SCIENCE. 



Farm Management Developed as Science — The agriculturists 
of the state experiment stations and of the National Department 
of Agriculture are seriously taking up the matter of farm manage- 
ment, and as far as their time permits they are ready to give 
advice. 

They need a specific, intelligent statement of your problem 
and your point of view, that they may the better understand how 
to investigate farm management in all its manifold bearings. 

There has already begun to appear writings on farm reorgan- 
ization and management from a number of men who ere long will 
be regarded as masters along this line of scientific instruction and 

advice. 

The experiment stations and the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture have begun to accumulate a valuable body of knowledge 
along this line and teachers are beginning to reduce to pedagogic 
form a system of teaching farm management to be comparable with 
teaching "other lines of engineering and business organization. 

The Various Soils Best Suited to Cereals — The cereals are 
suited to a wide range of soils. On light sandy, leachy or drouthy 
soils these crops usually make a crop of good quality but poor in 
quantity. 

The new durum wheat and Kaffir corn are adapted to the 
drouthy regions of the semi-arid plains ; durums well to the north, 
and Kaffir from Nebraska southward in this "plains region." 

There are few soils too heavy or wet for the small cereals, 
and rice grows in soils kept flooded so much of the time that few 
weeds can encumber the soil. 

Like most crops, these grains are best suited by soils which 
are a happy medium in texture from being made up of coarse and 
fine materials combined, as where the great glacier, crucible-like, 
has left its mixture of sand and clay to the northward of the 
Ohio and Missouri Rivers. 

Sods Adaptable to the Cereal Crops — As was stated earlier, 
these crops like to follow corn, potatoes, or other hoed crops, and 
the grasses, as on sods of timothy, clover, or timothy and clover 
sown together. 

The sod of the long-standing blue grass pasture, or of the 
long-established alfalfa meadow also suits these crops; though 
if the soil is naturally rich and the season unduly wet these crops 
are liable to overgrow in stems and leaves on rich land, and falling 
down, or even continuing too late their mere vegetative growth, 
make grain of poor quality and not large in quantity. 

Flax is less liable to be overfed, while the varieties of oats as 
yet available for most localities are peculiarly liable to lodge and 
to be overdone with much plant food. 

Why the cereals do not yield nearly as well following cereals 
as after alternating crops mentioned, is not fully understood. 

It is known that a specific bacterial disease of flax gets in the 
soil and destroys the flax by the disease called flax wilt. 

Crops Believed to Leave Poison in Soil — It is believed that 
some of these crops leave in the soil substances which are toxic or 
poisonous to the same plants grown the next year, and that this 
is one of the reasons why the yield is so low when one of these 
crops follow itself, or even follows one of the other small grains 
instead of following corn, grass or clover 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 61 



It is observed by all that these crops allow weeds to ripen 
and the furrow slice to become full of weed seeds; especially if 
the stubble is allowed to stand unpiowed for weeks after the grain 
has been harvested from over the weeds theretofore suppressed. 

Flax grown for seed is the worst sinner along this line, be- 
cause its leaves do not form a dense covering, allowing the weeds 
free growth, and because it is often so late in the ripening that 
many weeds have an opportunity to mature before the flax is har- 
vested. 

Winter rye and winter wheat generally ripen before many of 
the annual weeds have had time to ripen ; and oats, barley, buck- 
wheat and millet often grow so dense and so rapidly that the 
weeds which start to grow are smothered out. 

Grain Stubble Should be Plowed at Once It is very im- 
portant that grain stubble in which no grass seeds have been sown, 
be plowed or even disked, or better, plowed shallow at once after 
the grain is harvested. 

This prevents most of the weeds from ripening and the land 
can be plowed again later in the autumn, or if corn, potatoes or 
other cultivated crop is to be planted there, plowing may be done 
in the spring. This plan often serves well to provide a "place into 
which the winter's crop of barnyard manure may be plowed under. 

In the South a crop of crimson clover sowed with the cereal 
and allowed to develop among the stubble may be plowed under 
in the autumn or the next spring; or a crop of cow peas may be 
sown after the grain is harvested in June. 



Feeding; Legumes to Stock Best Plan These leguminous 

crops are valuable as green manure on account of the nitrogen 
and the humus-making organic matter they contain. But where 
they can be harvested, fed to live stock and half of these sub- 
stances can be returned to the soil as manure dropped in the field 
or carted from the barns, that is generally the best plan. 

Where the crop is carted from the Held, nearly half the nitro- 
gen and humus-making materials are left in the roots and in the 
bottoms of the stems and in the leaves and othjr portions of the 
plants not obtained in gathering the green forage or the field-dried 
fodder. 

The live stock secure sufficient toll from the crop to- pay for 
more than the one-fourth of the total manurial value finally lost. 
Besides, feeding out a crop of forage makes live stock necessary, 
and there is another compensation in the grain which must be 
usually fed with the roughage, thus keeping also on the farm 
more of the manurial value of the grains raised on the farm or 
purchased. 

Live stock are great agencies for building up and conserving 
soil fertility. When "the pig roots off the mortgage," he has also 
rooted greater value into the soil saved from the money lender; 
and the cow has well-nigh usurped the "golden hoof of the sheep" 
in many states because "she ships out in the form of golden butter 
sunshine for dollars," leaving practically all the fertility contained 
in her food to be returned to the soil. 



Preparation of the Grain Crops' Seed Bed These grain 

crops are generally good feeders, but they want to feed near the 
surface as well as deeper down. They can send their water-finding 
roots four or even six feet deep. 



62 



FARM SCIENCE. 



But they know that the richest part of the soil is the furrow 
slice and they want that in the best possible condition to feed in. 
In most climates they like to have the furrow slice a year old, so 
that its lower half has had a year in which to become compact 
and well-knit together. 

They like to have only the upper part of the furrow slice loose 
to easily take in falling rain and to serve as a dust blanket or 
dirt mulch to retard its wasting by evaporation from the surface 
of the ground. Fall-plowed land is as a rule, therefore, better 
than spring-plowed land. Corn and potato fields often leave the 
soil in excellent condition for these grains. This is true of fields 
in which the surface was stirred several times to the depth of two 
or three inches the previous year. Thus the lower part of the 
furrow slice is allowed to become compact, its upper part is kept 
mellow and many weed seeds are brought into the sprouting zone 
the resulting plants from which are at once destroyed. 

Here the grain is generally best planted without plowing; culti- 
vating the land only to cover the seeds at a uniform depth of one 
to two inches. 

Cases of Advantage in Replowing in Spring — On very heavy 
lands far to the north in rare cases it is best to replow the land in 
the spring to prevent its becoming too dense. 

In some climatic conditions in the dry plains regions plowing 
in the spring gives better yields than fall plowing. There the 
evaporation into the dry atmosphere is so rapid, and the supply of 
soil moisture is so meager that the whole depth of the furrow 
slice is needed to retard the loss of evaporation of water from the 
surface of the ground. 

The plants can better give up having their roots in the lower 
half of the furrow slice and feed in the subsoil than do with less 
water. These soils are rich in plant food to great depth and the 
conservation of water instead of the conservation of plant food 
is the prime necessity. 

Seed Bed Should be Fine and Smooth — The immediate pre- 
paration of the seed bed should be such as to have it fine and 
smooth, that the seeds may be placed at a moderate depth, one to 
two inches for flax and millet and one and one-half to three inches 
for the other grains. 

Under dry, late, warm conditions the deeper depths should be 
approached, and under cool, early, wet conditions the shallower 
planting should be made. 

The best time for seeding must be worked out for each locality. 
Sometimes unusual conditions control, as where it is necessary to 
plant winter wheat late in the autumn so that it may escape the 
Hessian fly. As a rule, spring wheat should be sown very early, 
oats a little later, barley still later, millet not till corn planting 
time, while flax and buckwheat have a wide range from the time 
danger of frost is well passed till in June. 

Planting at Uniform Depth in Moist Soil — The planting 
should be done in such manner that the seeds are placed at a uni- 
form depth in moist soil from which they may at once absorb the 
necessary moisture to induce germination and to provide a water 
contact between rootlets and soil particles through which plant 
food may at once go from soil into root and plant. 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 63 



There has been great improvement in machinery for seeding 
small grains. The hoe drill, and especially the disc drill and the 
shoe drill, place the seeds in the moist bottom of a freshly made 
furrow and allow the soil to at once fall back as a covering. 

Following with a Scotch harrow or other drag to complete the 
covering is often an aid to uniform germination and to care of 
plantlets in escaping from the seed bed. 

Conditions Determine Amount of Seed The amount of 

seed varies greatly with the openness or closeness of texture of 
the soil, and its fertility; also with the temperature and rainfall, 
and with the earliness or lateness of planting. 

When conditions as dense, moist, cool soil prevail for a long 
period, inducing the grains to stool well, less seed will be necessary. 
On the other hand, an open, drouthy infertile soil, warm weather 
and a short stooling season, will make necessary for a larger 
amount of seed for a full stand of plants. 

Some of these conditions are in conflict, as the inability of a 
soil poor in fertility to support a heavy crop. 

The amount of seed best to use in each agricultural district 
for each crop, each kind of soil and each time of seeding must be 
determined by formal experiments or by wide practical experience 
by farmers in that district. 

Since the farmer cannot predict with certainty what the 
weather is to be following a given date of seeding, he must take 
into consideration all other available facts and use his best judg- 
ment ; not departing too widely from what is known to be the best 
average amount of seed to be used. 

Some General Rules as to Amount of Seed. — About one- 
sixth less seed is needed when the drill is used to place the seeds 
at a uniform depth than when they are broadcast and placed at 
different depths by cultivating them in. Only the average extremes 
in amount of seed to sow are given here, because local requirements 
differ so widely. 

They may be stated as follows : Wheat, five to eight pecks ; 
oats, eight to ten pecks ; barley, seven to nine pecks ; rye, seven to 
nine pecks; millet, two to three pecks; flax, for seed, two to three 
pecks ; buckwheat, two to three pecks. 

As a rule little more can be done for the growing crop of 
closely drilled or broadcast grain than to pull out by hand large 
weeds or such weeds as wild mustard, the seeds of which ripen 
with the ripening grain and reseed the field. 

In some foreign countries women and children are employed 
to pull out the weeds and even to hoe between the narrow drill 
rows when the plants are several inches high. We are glad that 
our country has such high rates of wages that this is impracticable ; 
and that our farming is on a broad basis of machine farming under 
which our farmers and farm laborers can get good and just re- 
muneration for their work. 

Shocking an Art to be Taught by Example — Modern farm 
machinery has blocked out a rapid, easy and effective way of hand- 
ling the small grains. These crops are practically all bound in 
bundles by the self binder, and the bundles are bunched ready for 
the shocker, who is the only man who needs to touch the bundles 
with his hands. 



04 



FARM SCIENCE. 



Shocking is an art that is easily taught by example, but not 
so easily described on paper. Different arrangements of the bundles 
suit different purposes. For wet grain, or for quick drying, that 
the grain may early go to the stack, barn or threshing machine, 
"two by two" shocks are often best. Sometimes these should be 
set closely, and under other conditions they should be set' open so 
as to give to the air the freest possible circulation. 

A simple round shock is made by placing four bundles in the 
middle and then placing around them a circular row of compactly 
placed bundles, each slanting toward the center. These bundles 
should be firmly set on the ground and unless rapid drying is 
needed each successive bundle should be set compactly against 
its fellow so that the wind may not get a hold and tear the shock 
to pieces. Generally two bundles with both butts and heads broken 
over should be used to set into and lap over the shock so as to 
serve as shingles in shedding water, and so placed that they will 
withstand wind pressure. 




Fighting; Dampness and Weevil from Grain — As American 

farmers accumulate wealth they build great barns, if not sufficient 
for all their hay and unthreshed grain, at least to store the neat 
grain until such time as good prices or needs of the bank account 
warrant its being taken to market. Only where the newly- 
threshed grain is damp is there usually need of extra precautions 
in storing grain. Then some means of drying must be employed. 
Large barn floors on which the grain is spread and turned with 
shovels twice or oftener daily, to avoid heating, and to induce dry- 
ing, is often the most available method. 

In rare cases grain weevils need to be fought. Then the bi- 
sulphide of carbon treatment can be effectively used, and your 
experiment station or your Uncle Sam's Agricultural Department 
will send a bulletin for the asking. 

It may be applied directly to the infested grain or seed with- 
out injury to its edible or germinative qualities by spraying or 
pouring, but the most effective manner of its application in moder- 
ately tight bins, or other receptacles, consists in evaporating the 
liquid in shallow dishes or pans or on bits of cloth or cotton waste 
distributed about on the surface of the infested grain. 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 65 



Insects Killed by Evaporation of Liquid The liquid rap- 
idly volatilizes and being heavier than air descends and permeates 
the mass of grain killing all insects and other vermin present. 

The bisulphide is usually evaporated in vessels containing one- 
fourth or one-half pounds each, and is applied at the rate of a 
pound and a half to the ton of grain. In more open bins a larger 
quantity is used. For smaller masses of grain or other material 
an ounce is evaporated to every ioo pounds of infested matter. 

The grain is generally subjected to the bisulphide treatment 
for twenty-four hours, but may be exposed much longer without 
harmful results. Since this chemical is inflammable all lights and 
matches should be kept away from it. 

The time will surely come when grain will be sold for the 
cleaned grain and then all the farmers will be induced to keep the 
weed seeds and other foreign matter to be fed to live stock on the 
farm where they were raised. 





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SELF BINDER IN SERVICE. 

During recent years great improvement have been made in 
grain cleaning machinery, both in the threshing separator and in 
the barn farming mill. With one of the modern mills which is 
both efficient and rapid, the grain can be recleaned before sale at 
no great cost of labor. As a matter of fact, many threshing sep- 
arators in good hands put only clean grain into the farmers' 
granaries. 

The Most Profitable Marketing of Small Grains It pays to 

market some small grains "on hoof" ; that is, feed them to live 
stock; but the larger part must go to feed the men and horses of 
the cities, and to make linseed oil and other non-food products. 

As a rule, farmers market their grains as soon as convenient 
after they are garnered, as most of the commercial crops of these 
grains are produced in the north temperate zone. This puts the 
bulk of these commodities on the market in our northern autumn 
and early winter. 

Since the purchasing agencies are better organized than the 
original sellers, the producers, it is believed that this tends to plac- 
ing the farmers under some disadvantage as to price. The ability 



00 FARM SCIENCE. 



to prognosticate prices has been successfully developed by com- 
paratively few farmers, while many who make of trade a business 
have developed peculiar ability along this line. 

Scientific investigations are being made of the marketing of 
farm products; and in some cases growers have met combinations 
of buyers with combinations of sellers. This brings barter and 
sale to a more equal basis, often with only a single representative, 
or better with a committee, on either side. The deal is then on a 
broad basis and all the facts may be available to both sides. 

Effect of Reports and Organization — The development of 
government reports of crops, of stocks on hand and in transit, and 
of demand, and the organization of buyers and sellers offers a 
most interesting phase for study in our rural economics. 

The world is becoming more co-operative, even more sensibly 
socialistic, using that word in its true sense, than it has yet recog- 
nized. Farming is to' be the one great industry where individual- 
ism is conserved for the business and family life, and where only 
those things where co-operation is necessary, and best, are given 
over as public or co-operative functions. 

Individualism under co-operative organization was made pos- 
sible by our farmstead scheme, where "the farm business and the 
family form a unit" calculated for the best production of men and 
women. 

Progress in Breeding the Small Cereals — That the Ameri- 
can farmers are ere long to have varieties of grain which yield 
ten or even twenty-five per cent more than those now in use is 
certain. 

The introduction of the best old or newly bred varieties, varie- 
ties from foreign countries, and from state to state ; and the im- 
provement by breeding the varieties of each state suiting them to 
each and every agricultural district, are proved methods, capable 
of adding one to three dollars to the acre to the value of our 
100,000,000 acres of small cereals. 

These possible hundreds of millions of increased crops annu- 
ally, at a cost of much less than ten millions, is finally interesting 
the national and state governments, as well as seed firms, also a 
large number of private breeders of field crops. 

The introduction of durum or macaroni wheats to the semi- 
arid lands of the great West has made possible tens of millions 
of added crop, and the cost has been very slight. These durum 
varieties are now serving as bases on which plant breeders at 
various experiment stations are building better varieties by the 
art of selective breeding, and by breeding by hybridization fol- 
lowed by selection. 

Notable Increase by Spring Wheat Breeding — Some of the 
spring wheats have already been bred so as to yield fifteen and 
eighteen per cent more grain on millions of acres upon which 
rapidly spreading varieties from the Minnesota Experiment Station 
are now grown. 

The United States Department of Agriculture is co-operating 
with a number of state experiment stations and new selected and 
new hybrid pure-bred varieties of each of the small grains are be- 
ing originated by the tens of thousands. 

On one experiment farm alone 2,000 new hybrid winter wheats 
have been originated. It is believed that at least a few of these 



SMALL GRAIN GROWING. 67 



new sorts will be as hardy as rye and will extend the winter wheat 
zone to the Manitoba boundary, thus greatly increasing the yield. 

Continuous Snow Makes Large Crops When the winters 

are such that snow covers the ground during the winter season 
winter wheats yield thirty to fifty per cent more than do spring 
varieties. The combined autumn and spring cool periods greatly 
extend the stooling period, and besides, winter wheats, by ripening 
earlier, escape much of the bad effects of the hot, dry summer 
weather and much of the ravages of insects, and especially of 
wheat rust. 

A new variety of flax, named Primost, has also been supplied 
to the farmers under co-operative work of the U. S. Department 
of Agriculture, and the Minnesota Experiment Station which 
yielded 15 bushels to the acre, as compared with 11.9 bushels of 
common flax grown under the same conditions. This gain of 3.1 
bushels per acre or of 26 per cent is worth $3.50 an acre. The breed- 
ing of this new variety did not cost more than one thousand dollars. 

Other new varieties of each species of the small grains, which 
are now incubating on various experiment farms, will rapidly come 
forward and all farmers should be ready to buy as each new and 
thoroughly tested and authenticated variety is brought forward by 
these public institutions. 

Scientific Methods of Breeding Cereals — The methods of 
breeding the cereals are being worked out in a most scientific and 
effective manner. 

The best varieties are obtained. From each of these a large 
number of seeds, say 10,000, are planted the fifst year, one seed 
in a hill to give each plant the same room as each other plant. 

There are chosen a large number, say 500, which appear to be 
splendid bearers of grains. The seeds are shelled out from each 
plant and weighed and further selection is made, of say, 100 best 
plants. 

The second year 150 seeds from each of these 100 mother 
plants are planted in a little plat. By means of a machine devised 
for the purpose, the seeds are planted in hills, say four or five 
inches apart each way, one seed in a hill. 

Average Yield of the Progeny is Obtained. — When these 
breeding plats are ripe the plants are counted and harvested and 
each little bundle is run through a specially designed miniature 
threshing machine. The weight of the grain from each plat is di- 
vided by the number of plants which grew to maturity, thus giving 
the average yield of the progeny of each mother plant. 

Seeds' are chosen from ten of the best plants and the third and 
again the fourth year a similar nursery plat is planted from each 
of the 100 varieties. The average yield of the progeny of each of 
the 100 mother plants gives their relative breeding power and the 
few, say five, of those producing crops of greatest value, are 
elected to be tested in field trials. 

The fifth, and sometimes the sixth year's, are consumed in 
increasing so as to have sufficient seed for a field plat. The sixth 
year the five new varieties are grown beside the parent kinds and 
beside other valuable introduced or new varieties. 



68 FARM SCIENCE. 



These field trials are repeated the seventh and eighth years. 
Any which are specially promising may be placed with other ex- 
perimenters during these last years for confirmatory tests and to 
determine the larger area in which the new kind is especially 
valuable. 

Class of Pure-Bred Seed Growers Needed. — For rapidly 
distributing the many valuable new forthcoming varieties of field 
crops, that they may quickly replace poorer kinds, and that they 
may be kept pure from diseases and clean of weed seeds, there 
needs to be developed a class of pure-bred seed growers, as we 
have now growers of pure-bred live stock. 

In some states the experiment stations select the men to whom 
they will sell at a good price their valuable new creations, that 
every county and every neighborhood may have the seeds grown 
for them near home and at a fair though profitable price. 

In some cases these growers of pure-bred seeds have formed 
state seed growers' associations. This plan of distribution of new 
varieties helps to give to growers of valuable seeds that added 
profit which originated by experiment stations induces them care- 
fully to produce and market the needed large amounts of each 
valuable new kind of seeds so that all will grow them instead of 
the old-fashioned poor yielding kinds. It is both an honor and a 
profit to be a grower of pure-bred seeds, and this plan is profit- 
able to the mass of farmers who need the good seeds. 

American grain growing is looking up because it is fast becom- 
ing a part of general farming, because the fields are becoming 
better prepared for grain, and because science is making vast im- 
provements in machinery, in methods of cultivation and in trans- 
portation and especially in the inherited power of the varieties of 
grain themselves. 

Willet M. Hays, 
Assistant Sacretary of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. 



Profitable Hay Making 

THE SEEDING— THE GROWING CROP— BEST METHODS 

OF CURING HAY. 



By Prof. Thomas Shaw 




HE corn crop of the United States stands first in the 
popular estimate. This estimate is based on the fact 
that the corn crop far exceeds, in direct cash value, 
any other single crop grown in the United States. In 
1905 the farm value of the corn crop was $1,116,696,- 
738. Wheat ranks second with a farm value of 
$5/8.37 2 .7 2 7- The hay crop is a close third with a 
farm value of $515,959,784. 

That corn is king among farm crops, to use a pop- 
ular phrase, would be apparent from the above fig- 
ures. But it is only apparent. The grass crop is the 
most important crop that the United States pro- 
duces, and it will continue to be so through all time. That such is 
the fact may readily be shown. Let it be observed : 

1. That the estimated value of the grass crop included only hay, 
while it is undoubtedly true that the pasture crop is more valuable 
by a large margin than the hay crop, because of the immense area 
in pasture. Add these values, and the cash value of the grass crop 
will exceed that of the corn. 

2. The corn crop has cost much more to produce it than the hay 
crop, hence the net profit from growing the hay would approximate 
much more nearly the net profit from growing corn, than the maxi- 
mum value of the former does that of the latter. 

3. The full value of the hay to the farmer is not shown by its 
commercial value in the matured form. While the grasses have been 
growing into arable farms where rotation is practised, they have 
been storing the ground with their roots, which along with the stub- 
bles, furnish humus when the meadows are broken up, for the 
growing of other crops. Those leguminous in character always in 
addition, leave the ground richer than they found it in nitrogen, 
and nitrogen is the costly element of fertility. 

The indirect value of the hay crop to the farmer can not be 
stated in figures. But it would not be extravagant to say, that all 
things considered, it would not be much less than the market value 
of the hay. 

In the absence of grass, the humus supply in the land can not so 
well be maintained in any other way, which means that without it, 
land can not be kept for a considerable term of years in a proper 
mechanical condition. Without the grass crop, weeds can not be so 
readily kept under control, nor can the diseases that affect grain 
crops be so readily kept at bay. In its absence, some soils blow and 
others are carried away by the action of water, which may fall _ in 
the form of rain or snow. In its absence, live stock can not be main- 
tained on the farm without undue expense, and consequently in its 

absence mixed farming will be impossible. Beyond all question, 

69 



70 



FARM SCIENCE. 



grass is king among the crops of the farm in the United States and 
so it will continue to be. 

Meadow in the Rotation — In the absence of the grass crop, true 
rotation is not possible in the sense of resting and renovat- 
ing land, without undue expense. To change from one cereal 
crop to another in the rotation does not rest or renovate 
land unless the cereal grown is a legume. _ Growing these crops in 
alternation has some advantages over growing only one in unchang- 
ing succession, especially when one of these, as corn for instance, is 
made a cleaning crop, but all of these except the pea crop draw 
upon practically the same elements of fertility in the land. 

The frequency with which the hay crop should be introduced 
into the rotation depends upon conditions such as relate to soil, cli- 
mate, the character of the hay crop grown and the object for which 
it is grown. 

Where the soil conditions are such that in conjunction with the 
climatic conditions, a stand of grass can be reckoned in with much 




OSBORNE MOWER IN MEADOW. 



certainty, the introduction of the grass crop should be quite fre- 
quent in the rotation. The aim should be, as a rule, to grow not 
more than three crops of grain between the grass crops. In this way 
the land may be adequately supplied with humus. With great pro- 
priety the grass crop may precede such crops as corn and potatoes, 
and if the sod has been manured with farmyard manure before 
plowing it, the conditions are just to that extent improved. Under 
the conditions named, the plan is good which cuts two crops of 
mixed hay, followed by one season of pasturing. This in time is 
followed by a cultivated crop, and after the cultivated crop, two 
crops of cereals. 

Wherever the rainfall is large and the temperature warm, it 
would be better to aim to grow only two crops of cereals between 
the grass crops, because of the quick decay of humus. But where 
the rainfall is light and the atmosphere of a character which retards 
the decay of humus, as in the northwestern states, in many instances 
four crops of grain may come between the grass crops without too 
quickly depleting the land of the humus supply. 



PROFITABLE HAY MAKING. 11 



If the hay crop grown should be a legume, as for instance red 
clover, then the most profitable rotation is clover cut twice in one 
season, a cultivated crop as corn or potatoes the next season, and a 
cereal crop seeded to clover the third season. Such a rotation is 
unrivaled for the maintenance of maximum production in crops. 

But there may be instances when it is not desirable to rotate 
hay crops. Certain soils have special adaptation to growing hay, 
and they may be so situated that hay crops grown upon them are 
more remunerative than other crops ; such are reclaimed tide lands 
by the sea, and in some instances river bottom sands subject or not 
subject to overflow. 

In some cases hay is so dear relatively that it is more profitable 
to keep the land growing hay for successive years when once a good 
stand has been obtained. The production in the crop is then main- 
tained by applying artificial fertilizers. In other instances good 
crops may be grown for a long term of years without fertilizers, as 
when certain marsh lands have been reclaimed, and in yet other in- 
stances a certain hay crop may have adaptation to certain soils, so 




DEERING MOWER PASSING AN OBSTRUCTION. 

high, that it may produce many successive crops of hay without in- 
jury to the land, such as the alfalfa crop. 

Mixed Grasses for Hay — Some grasses grow best alone. This 
may arise from inability to cope with other grasses, as in the case 
of alfalfa, hence, except under peculiarly favorable conditions, the 
aim is to grow alfalfa alone. Or it may arise from the great ag- 
gressive character of these grasses, which enables them soon to 
crowd out other grasses. Such are Johnson grass grown in the 
south, Bermuda grass also grown there, Kentucky blue grass which 
grows over almost the entire United States save in the semi-arid 
west, quack grass which is widely scattered over farms in the north- 
ern central and eastern states, and which persists in growing where 
it is not desired. Johnson grass and quack grass yield well, but both 
are so persistent in their growth that they should never be sown. 
Bermuda and Kentucky blue grass have far higher relative adapta- 
tion for pasture than for hay, hence they should only be sown or 
planted for pasture. 



72 FARM SCIENCE. 



The three grasses, timothy, Russian brome, and western rye 
grass or slender wheat grass, as it is sometimes called, may be grown 
with other grasses, but for certain reasons, are very frequently 
sown alone. 

Timothy is the most valuable of all grasses. It stands shipping 
best. It has highest adaption to the needs of horses, partly on ac- 




FOLLOWING THE MOWER. 



count of its composition, and partly because of its freedom from 
dust. For these reasons it is very frequently grown alone. 

Russian brome grass is frequently sown alone in the Dakotas 
and the northwestern provinces of Canada, because of its high rela- 
tive adaption to the conditions found there. For a similar reason 
western rye grass is sown alone in the same areas, and more par- 
ticularly where the conditions are driest in the same. 

More commonly, however, hay is sown in mixtures. The follow- 
ing are among the chief reasons for sowing it thus : 

1. Larger yields are obtained. 

2. Usually such hay has a wider adaption for feeding than is 
possessed by any other variety. 

3. It is frequently more easily cured than if grown alone. Ex- 
perience has shown that in growing plants in certain combinations, 
larger yields may be obtained than when they are grown singly. 
This is owing to the fact, doubtless, that in mixtures they more 
completely occupy the soil, and to the further fact, that each draws 
most heavily on its own proper food elements in the soil, hence more 
plant food is appropriated by the combination than could be appro- 
priated by any singly plant. Because of the difference in the analyses 
of plants thus grown together, they have a wider adaptation than if 
grown alone. Timothy, for instance, has high adaptation for horses, 
but low adaptation for sheep. Clover has high adaptation for sheep 
and unless when entirely free from dust, low adaptation for horses; 
whereas, a mixture of clover and timothy answers well for almost 
every kind of feeding to the domestic animals of the farm. 

The prejudice to a limited amount of bright, well cured clover in 
timothy fed to horses, is not well founded. When clover is grown 
alone it is sometimes difficult to cure. When grown along with 
such grasses as timothy or orchard grass, it cures more quickly 



PROFITABLE HAY MAKING 






and easily, since the curing, or rather the keeping qualities of the 
clover is favorably influenced by admixture with grasses which 
cure thus quickly. 

The most common mixture of grasses is medium red clover and 
timothy. These are peculiarly adapted to produce hay most desired 
on the farm. They grow well together on the same land. The 
timothy helps to sustain the clover and the clover improves the 
character of the hay for feeding, and when it dies the dead roots 
nourish the timothy. In such a mixture clover will predominate the 
first season of harvesting the crop for hay, and timothy the next 
year. 

This mixture has high adaption for all the northern states and 
several of the provinces of Canada, also for certain areas west of 
the Rocky Mountains and in the irrigated valleys of the Rockies. 
In these areas the yields may be improved upon by sowing timothy 
medium, mammoth, and Alsike clover in combination. 

In the Central States, with Kansas as a center, orchard grass, 
meadow fescue and Russian brome grass may figure largely in the 
grasses of the meadow. 

In the upland areas of the northern plateaus of the western 
mountains, orchard grass, meadow fescue, Russian brome and tall 
oat grass have given satisfaction. And in the south, one of the best 
combinations is orchard grass, tall oat grass, and in some instances 
timothy. 

The Legumes as Hay Crops — Leguminous crops are those 
that produce their seeds in sacs or pods. They are all possessed of 
the power to draw nitrogen from the air in the process of growth and 
to store it in the soil, where it is accessible to crops that immediately 
follow. This power to appropriate nitrogen not in the soil is doubt- 




MILWAUKEE IN CLOVER FIELD. 

less one reason why legumes are so rich in protein. Protein is the 
element in foods which is chiefly used in making muscle and milk, 
for other than legumes are largely used in the production of heat 
and energy. Unless these foods are fed in due balance animals can 
not be so "cheaply grown, so perfectly grown, or so well maintained. 
Three reasons will always exist for the growing of legumes. 
The first is that they must be grown if foods are to be fed in bal- 



74 



FARM SCIENCE. 



ance. The second is that nature unaided does not furnish them in 
anything like the same abundance as it furnishes many of the grasses 
proper. The third is because of the great service they render in the 
enrichment of the land. Of so much account are they in the animal 
and vegetable world that it behooves the farmer to give special at- 
tention to their abundant growth in the rotation. 

Young animals, especially, must be abundantly supplied with 
muscle-making material. This explains why the clovers furnish 
more suitable food for them than the grasses proper. Likewise cows 
and other animals which provide milk can not do so in the absence 
of liberal supplies of protein. This explains why good clover hay 
is better adapted for milk production than good corn stover. There 
is, of course, some protein in grasses and coarse fodder, but there 
is not enough to supply the needs of the classes of animals named. 
It must be supplied from some other source, and there is no source 
of supply so cheap ordinarily as that which furnishes protein by 
growing it on the farm. 

Nature does not furnish foods, nitrogenous in character, with 
anything like the same abundance that it does foods that are car- 










SERVICE IN A SOUTHERN FIELD. 



bonaceous. All the grasses, many of which take possession of the 
soil unaided as it were, are relatively low in protein as compared 
with legumes. Nature covered the original prairies with grasses not 
legumes. When the forest is cut away, blue grass comes in and 
possesses the soil. Nature never covers the land with legumes. The 
nearest approach to such a covering is found in the more or less 
abundant growth of wild pea vines scattered amid the native grasses, 
and particularly on lands more or less covered with brush in the 
American and Canadian northwest. 

All the grains which grow in the north are non-leguminous, ex- 
cept peas, vetches and beans, and the same is true of those of the 
south except cow peas, soy beans and velvet beans. 

The only leguminous root crops, strictly speaking, that furnishes 
food for live stock is the peanut. All the coarse fodders, as corn, 
sorghum and the non-saccharine sorghums are non-leguminous. 
True, flax in the north and cotton-seed meal in the south are rela- 
tively rich in protein. So are the by-products of wheat, as bran 



PROFITABLE HAY MAKING. 



75 



and shorts, but none of these is a legume. Where live stock is to 
be kept, therefore, the need is imperative for growing a sufficiency 
of protein, and in no way can it be more cheaply furnished than by 
growing legumes, and more especially in the form of hay. 

But the great service that legumes render to the soil furnishes 
an important reason for growing them freely. Red clover grown on 
soil will furnish a crop of hay and also of seed in one season, and 
will leave the ground richer in nitrogen than when the crop was 
sown. Peas, vetches, cow peas and soy beans may be allowed to 
mature and the vines and seed may both be removed and yet the 
land will be richer in nitrogen than it was previously. Should 
alfalfa, clovers, and the other legumes mentioned be fed on the 
land, it will be at once apparent that the process will exert a favora- 
ble influence in building up the soil. Of course, when these crops 
are sold, it may be necessary to supply the soil with additional phos- 
phoric acid and potash. 

Soils for Producing Hay Crops — The question of .soil adap- 
tion in growing hay is one of great significance. A grass or 




INTERNATIONAL HAY STACKER DISCHARGING LOAD. 

clover that may flourish well on one kind of soil may utterly fail 
on another. Climate adaption is also important, but that has already 
been touched upon when referring to the areas in which these 
various hay crops are found at their best. 

The highest adaption for alfalfa is found in the volcanic ash 
soils of the west. These are more or less sandy in character and if 
they are underlaid with sheet water within a few feet of the sur- 
face, the adaption is further increased. Next to these come clay 
loam soils of mild texture and underlaid with clay not dense in 
character. Wet and marshy lands are quite unsuitable. On many 
soils alfalfa will not succeed well until inoculated with the bacteria 
essential to its growth. This is most easily done by sowing 200 to 
300 pounds of earth over the land that has been obtained from a 
field in which alfalfa is growing vigorously. 

Medium red clover has soil adaption a good deal similar to that 
of alfalfa, but it will flourish in a shallower soil, as it feeds less 
deeply, and also in a soil with watery saturation which comes nearer 



76 



FARM SCIENCE. 



to the surface. Reel clover is almost certain to grow well on soils 
that will produce hard wood timber, and usually without inocula- 
tion. It generally grows well also on the average prairie soil where 
the climate conditions are suitable, but these may in some) instances 
require inoculation with soil taken from a field in which red clover 
has recently been grown, or is growing in the same when the soil is 
obtained for such a use. 

Alsike clover has high adaption for humus soils. It will succeed 
well in situations that would be entirely too low for red clover of 
either variety, for mammoth clover has much the same adaption as 
medium red clover. It is because of this adaption for humus soils 
that alsike clover is so well adapted for being grown with timothy, 
as well as because the two mature at the same time. But alsike 
clover will also grow well on soils with much less clay in them, 
although the yields from these will not equal the yields from 
humus soils. 

Timothy, like alsike clover, has highest adaption for humus 
soils, providing these are possessed of a considerable clay content 
and more particularly when they are underlaid with clay. Timothy 
will also grow well on sandy and clay loams, particularly the latter, 




INTERNATIONAL HAY STACKER WITH LOAD DISCHARGED. 



when an ample supply of moisture is present. But neither timothy 
nor alsike clover is well adapted to light lands low in fertility, 
and especially where the conditions are dry. 

Red top grows naturally in low lands, that is, it grows at its best 
in these, even when composed of peaty muck. In such marshes as 
have grown wire grass before they were drained, red top will usually 
possess the soils when the waters have been removed. But red top 
will also grow well on uplands reasonably moist, as shown by its 
behavior in New England when grown in conjunction with timothy, 
and in several of the states of the South, in which it is a factor of 
considerable importance in growing hay. 

Orchard grass will grow in a fairly wide range of soil. It has 
been mostly grown on certain of the loamy clays of New England, 
the stirrer soils of Indiana, the reddish clays of Tennessee and other 
states of the south, and in the sandy loam soil of Idaho and the ad- 



PROFITABLE HAY MAKING 77 



joining states. Orchard grass calls for soils naturally moist, but 
not wet. 

Russian brome grass will grow in soils that would be too dry 
for timothy or orchard grass, but it does not grow nearly as well 
relatively on dry as on moist soils. It has high adaption for the 
soils of western and especially northwestern prairies and in many 
localities it gives yields considerably ahead of those ob- 
tained from timothy, and produces hay of equal feeding value, ton 
for ton, but not nearly so well adapted for selling in the open 
market. 

Western rye grass grows well on average prairie soils. It will 
grow better on sandy soils under dry conditions than almost any 
other kind of grass. It will flourish under conditions that would be 
too dry even for Russian brome, but of course it will give better 
yields where the soils are not so open and the land is more moist. 
The hay is more woody than that of timothy and brome grass. 

Tall oat grass is adapted to a considerable variety of soils. 
ranging from light sandy loams to clays of considerable density, 
but it finds most congenial conditions in loam soils. This grass has 
higher adaption to the central and far western states, and to areas 
south rather than north from these. 

Meadow fescue would seem to have nearly the same adaption 
as tall oat grass, but it is slower in taking a firm hold upon the 
soil and is correspondingly more enduring. It has been grown 
with much satisfaction for hay and for seed in Nebraska and' 
Idaho. Peas and vetches require a moist but not a wet soil. It 
should also be more or less clayey in texture. The conditions 
suitable for medium red clover are also usually suitable, at least 
in a fair degree, for growing Canada field peas and common vetches. 
The cow pea and sand vetch will grow well under conditions less 
favorable to growth, as where the soil is sandy and relatively low 
in fertility. 

The soils adapted to growing grains for hay are virtually the 
same as those for growing them for the grain, but with the differ- 
ence that when grown for hay grain production is not so important 
relatively as when grain is the principal object sought, and straw 
or rather hay production, that is the production of stem, and leaves, 
is relatively more important. Because of this, these crops may be 
sown on lower soils and richer in vegetable matter than would be 
suitable for growing them at their best for grain production. 

Sorghum and Kafir corn may be successfully grown for hay 
on any kind of soil that will produce Indian corn in good form, 
that is, they may be successful on any good sandy or clay loam 
soil where the climate is suitable. In almost every state in the 
Union the climate is suitable for growing some variety of sorghum 
into hay, but Kafir corn requires conditions somewhat warmer. 
The central Mississippi states have highest adaptation to growing 
such hay. 

Sowing Grasses and Grains for Hay — No matter what the 
grass or grain may be that is sown, it should always be the aim to 
sow on soil clean, mellow on and near the surface, moist and firm. 
These conditions may usually be attained by the proper prepara- 
tion of the land previously. They are most readily secured when 
crops for hay are sown after those that have been cultivated the 
previous season, as for instance crops of corn, sorghum grown for 



FARM SCIENCE. 



sirup, Kafir corn grown for grain, or potatoes on field roots. The 
cultivation given to those crops furnishes all the requisite conditions 
named above where such cultivation has been ample. Usually the 
preparation that should follow such crops consist of disking and 
harrowing rather than plowing and harrowing, but of course to this 
there are even many exceptions. 

The best time for sowing many of the grasses is the early au- 
tumn, but they also may be sown in the early spring. When thus 
sown they are not so well able to endure dry weather the summer 
following. In all Northern areas these may be sown in the spring 
and the same is true of alfalfa. But in all southern areas these 
may be sown in the autumn. 

Alfalfa is best sown in the early autumn. As a rule south of 
parallel 40 degrees. When sown northward in the spring, it should 
not be sown so early as the clovers. As these are more hardy than 
alfalfa, the aim should be to sow them very early. 

In moist climates grasses and clovers may be sown any time 
from early spring to early autumn. The aim should be not to sow 
cereal mixtures, as small grains, early sorghum and Kafir corn, until 
the arrival of settled warm weather and the same is true of cow 
peas and millet. 

Millet in several varieties is frequently grown for hay. It yields 
abundantly on prairie and slough soils, because of their richness in 
vegetable matter, and since it will mature a crop in 60 to 80 days 
from the time of sowing, it is often sown to provide hay when there 
is likely to be a shortage. But the hay though palatable and nutri- 
tious, for certain reasons should be fed in connection with other 
fodder. 

All of these hay plants should be sown broadcast or on the 
broadcast plan. They may be sown by hand or by machinery. Both 
the grasses and clovers may be sown by hand-machines, strapped 
to the body and turned with a crank, by a distributor wheeled over 
the ground like a barrow, or by an attachment to the grain drill. 
Usually when mixtures of grass seed are sown they are mixed and 
sown together. But this way may not always be possible, as when 
large or small seeds are sown together. They do not feed out 
evenly in such instances, hence it may be necessary to sow them 
separately. Timothy, all the clover seeds and alfalfa grow well to- 
gether. All grains or grain mixtures may be best sown with the 
grain drill. The same is true of sorghum, Kafir corn and even 
millet, though all these may also be broadcast. 

Whether the grasses and clovers should be sown with or with- 
out a nurse crop will depend largely on climatic conditions. A 
nurse crop is of course a crop along with which these crops are 
sown and in many instances at the same time. Usually the grass and 
clover seed thus sown grow without doing any harm or any serious 
harm to the grain crop along with which they are sown until the 
later are harvested. In some instances, however, the nurse crop 
overshade the ground to the extent of smothering the young grass 
or clover plants. In other instances, they smother them by lodg- 
ing, and in yet other instances, they so weaken them by drawing 
on the moisture in the soil, that the young plants perish after the 
nurse crop has been harvested. But usually the plan is good which 
sows them with a nurse crop. 

Alfalfa is oftener sown alone than the other grass and clover 
seeds, as under some conditions, the plants are benefited by being 
cut off two or three times with the mower during the first summer. 




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80 FARM SCIENCE. 



The best nurse crop is probably barley, as it does not grow so 
tall as other grains and it occupies the ground for a shorter period. 
Next to barley probably is speltz, for similar reasons. Then comes 
rye which does not stool so much as other grains and it is harvested 
earlier, thus letting in sunlight and ceasing at an early period to 
draw moisture from the soil. After rye is wheat, of both the winter 
and spring varieties. After wheat conies oats, lowest in adaptation 
because of the abundance of the stooling and the large amount of 
the leaf growth. But oats answer well for a nurse crop when they 
are grown thinly and cut for hay at the heading out stage. 

In some instances grass and clover crops are sown along with 
certain cereals which are pastured off rather than reaped. Where 
soils are over porous, and the climate is dry, the pPan works well, 
as in western areas which border on the semi-arid region. The 
treading of animals helps to make the land firm. The grazing re- 
moves shade too dense and leaves more moisture for the young 
plants. Such grazing may consist of any of the small cereals, or 
better, of two or more of them combined. Grass seeds may thus 
be sown with rape grazed down, or with the flax which is to be 
harvested. 

The depth for sowing grass and clover seed will depend much 
on soil and climatic conditions. On loam soils where the weather 
is moist, much of the season, grass and clover seed will not of ne- 
cessity require other covering than that given to them by allow- 
ing them to fall before the grain drill tubes, or rolling the ground 
when they are sown by hand. 

In other instances, as where the conditions are dry they will be 
benefited by a stroke of the harrow in addition. This should always 
be given when they are sown in the spring along with winter rye 
or wheat, but under some conditions it may not be practicable to 
do this. Where soils are so light and spongy as to stick much be- 
neath the tread, it may be wise sometimes to sow the grass seeds 
along with the nurse crop and to feed them along with it through 
the grain tubes. 

Sorghum and Kafir corn and also millet, should be buried from 
one or two inches deep according to the soil and its condition at the 
time of sowing. 

The amounts of seed to sow will vary with soil and climatic 
conditions and the character of the hay sought. Thick sowing in- 
creases fineness and thin sowing coarseness. Some instances the 
conditions are so dry that thin sowing is imperative to give each 
plant enough moisture. 

Should the clovers be sown alone the amounts suited to average 
conditions would be: alfalfa eighteen pounds per acre, medium red 
or mammoth clover twelve pounds, and alsike clover five or six 
pounds. The average amount of timothy or red top to sow alone 
would be nine pounds. When timothy is sown with one or more 
clovers, the average amounts may be fixed at, timothy six pounds 
and clover or the clovers at eight pounds in all. This last is the 
great standard hay crop. 

Should orchard grass, meadow fescue, tall oat grass, Russian 
brome, or Western rye grass be sown alone, the average amount 
of seed may be fixed at fifteen pounds an acre, and when two or 
three of them are sown together, proportionate amounts are sown. 
It is of course to be understood that in all instances these amounts 



PROFITABLE HAY MAKING. 81 



relate to the growing of hay. For pasture it may be necessary to 
sow more seed. 

When timothy, red top and alsike clover are sown to provide 
permanent meadow, the respective average amounts of seed may be 
set down at six, six and three pounds of each respectively. 

When oats are sown for hay, the average amount of seed sown 
may be fixed at three bushels per acre. Wheat and barley if grown 
without irrigation should not be sown in greater quantity than say 
one and one-half to two bushels an acre. Cow peas are usually 
sown alone for hay at the rate of about one bushel per acre. Oats 
and peas are commonly sown at the rate of two and one-half 
bushels per acre, of which the proportion of peas will vary from 
one to one and one-quarter bushels according to the soil adaption. 
When vetches are sown with other grain, the whole amount sown 
may be put at two and one-half bushels, of which one bushel or 
more is vetches. Except where the conditions are very dry about 
two bushels of seed is sown per acre in order to make the hay 




A WESTERN CLOVER PATCH. 



fine and about one bushel of millet seed. When grains are sown 
in mixtures and pastured, from two and one-half to three bushels 
are sown and the usual amount of srrass and clover seeds. 



& 1 



Harvesting Hay — It is exceedingly important that hay should 
be harvested at the proper season. If cut too- early there is a great 
loss of nutrients through loss in bulk and weight. If cut at too 
advanced a stage, there is serious loss in palatability, and also in 
digestible nutrients. The loss from undue delay in cutting is least 
from crops that produce only one cutting in the season, and greatest 
from those that produce more than one. Alfalfa and medium red 
clover are of the last named class, hence delay in cutting one crop 
is followed be serious shrinkage in the next crop in addition to the 
loss in feeding value in the crop thus cut at too advanced a period. 

The best stage at which to 1 cut alfalfa is when it is coming into 
bloom, when probably not more than one third of the blooms are 
opened. All the clovers are at their best for cutting when approach- 
ing or at full bloom. They will then have some heads, not many, 
beginning to tint brown. If cut sooner than the period named alfalfa 



82 FARM SCIENCE. 



and red clover will be hard to cure, if cut later there is likely to 
be a serious loss of leaves in the curing process, and leaves are 
the most nutritious and palatable portion of these foods. 

Timothy is at its best for cutting when in the later stage of 
bloom, that is, when the bloom still lingers upon say one third or 
one fourth of the top of the head. If cut when in full bloom 
the adherent blossoms make the hay somewhat dusty when cured. 
Red top should be cut when in bloom, and the same is true of 
Russian brome. The orchard grass, meadow fescue, tall oat grass 
and western rye grass are better cut in the early stage of bloom than 
later as they quickly become woody and so lose rapidly in pala- 
tability. This is particularly true of orchard grass and western rye 
grass. 

When hay crops are grown in combination, that is when clovers 
and grasses are grown together there will be no difficulty in deter- 
mining the time at which they should be cut when they mature at the 
same time. Happily this is true of mammoth and alsike clover, 
timothy and red top. The best time for cutting these clovers will 
also be the best time for cutting timothy and red top which grows 
with them. But should medium red clover and timothy be grown 
together the difference in the time of maturing is from two to 
three weeks, according to the season. The safe rule to follow is 
to cut at the best time for making clover hay when the clover hay 
predominate"., as it usually does the first year, and the best time 
for making timothy hay when timothy predominates, as it usually 
does the second year. 

The best stage at which to cut wheat, oats and barley for hay, 
is when the grain is in the dough stage, or a little earlier with wheat 
and barley, as when it has reached the milk stage. This will be 
indicated by yellow appearance in the stems for a few inches up 
from ground. In the case of oats there will appear a slight tint of 
yellow on some of the heads when ready to harvest. 

When grains are sown in combination, as in the case of peas, 
vetches and other grains, they should be cut when the bulk of the 
grain in the dominate crop is reaching the dough stage. 

Cow peas are ready to harvest for hay when a considerable 
sprinkling of the pods have begun to mature. Sorghum and Kafir 
corn should be allowed to reach maturity, or nearly so, as then they 
contain a much larger amount of food nutrients than at an earlier 
period. But they should in all instances be cut before frost. Millet 
is at its best for hay when the crop begins to assume a yellow tint. 
Cut earlier it will be lacking in bulk, but later it will shed seeds 
freely. 

The implements for cutting hay are the mower and the binder. 
The implements for curing are the tedder and the horse-rake. The 
implements for storing are the wagon, hay loader, hay sweep or 
bull rake, the horse fork, the sling and the stacker. The binder 
is only used for cutting grains for hay alone or mixed, sorghum, 
Kafir corn and millet. But in some instances these are also cut 
with the mower. When cut with the binder the sheaves should be 
small and rather loosely bound to prevent them from moulding 
underneath the band in the airing process. 

Alfalfa and clover are cured by the same method in climates 
possessed of normal rainfall. When cut with the mower the hay 1 
lies on the ground until it is ready for being raked. This can be 
told by the ease with which it can be raked cleanly into windrows. 
When too green for being drawn together, bunches of the hay will 




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84 FARM SCIENCE. 



fall back from the ends of the rake and it will draw heavily. The 
drying will be greatly facilitated by running the tedder over the 
field once or twice within a few hours of the cutting of the crop, 
or at least the same day when the hay is cut early in the day. If 
kept unraked until browned with the sun, the loss of leaves and of 
palatability is considerable, especially in the case of alfalfa. 

As soon as raked the hay should be put up in cocks, not wide, 
but reasonably high to complete the curing. In the cocks the hay 
sweats and usually requires two days to complete the curing. It is 
then drawn and stored. In showery weather it is a great advantage 
to have the cocks covered with caps of rain-proof cloth, weighted 
at the corners and kept over from year to year. In such weather 
it may be necessary to open out the cocks a few hours before draw- 
ing the hay. 

This method of curing makes excellent hay but is costly when 
hay is made on a larger scale. Because of this, clover is sometimes 
cured in the swath and windrow, and the same is the common 
method of curing alfalfa in dry areas. The plan answers well with 
clover well sprinkled with timothy when the weather is good. It 
can then be loaded with the hay loader. Cow peas are cured in 
much the same way as clover, but they are even more difficult to 
cure in good form. 

The grasses proper are more commonly cured in the swath and 
windrow than in the cock. They cure much more quickly than the 
clovers and alfalfa, and are much less injured by rain. When put 
up in cock they also turn or shed rain much better than the clovers. 
With the aid of the tedder it has been found possible to cut some 
of these in the morning and to store them the same day. Usually 
in good weather they may be cut one day and stored the next. 

When grains grown alone or in mixtures are cut with the mower, 
they are harvested in the same way, substantially as grasses, but 
may take somewhat longer to cure. The tedder should also be used 
on these with more caution lest the hay should be soiled with earth. 
When cut with the binder they are most quickly cured in long 
shocks in which the sheaves are set up in pairs, in locations where 
they are not liable to be thrown down by the winds. 

When sorghum and Kafir corn are cut with the binder, after 
the sheaves have lain a day or two to dry the butts, they are stood 
up in round shocks, as these frequently stand for weeks and even 
months. These shocks are tied near the head with a band. When 
cut with the mower the crop may lie on the ground from two to 
four or five days where it fell. It is then raked and put up into 
large cocks and fed from these as desired. It does not readily 
mould in these, nor does it take injury easily from rain. Millet is 
cured in best form like clover, but is more commonly cured like the 
grasses. 

Feeding Hay on the Farm — Of course, the question as to 
whether hay shall be fed to live stock on the farm or sold, must be 
determined by the conditions. These are such as touch the relative 
market value of hay and meat, the needs of the live stock on the 
farm and its condition as to fertility. There are instances when it 
is justifiable and commendable to sell hay. The revenue of some 
farms runs in great part or entirely from the sale of hay and this 
is not incompatible with the maintenance of fertility. Everything 
depends upon the way in which the work is done, 



8b FARM SCIENCE. 



It is difficult under any American conditions to get more than 
$10 to $12 a ton for hay — however, it may be fed. On the other 
hand, the conditions are seldom c r ever present when the grower 
can afford to deliver hay in the market i-t much less than $7 or $8 
a ton. An exception is fount" in aHalfa areas in the western moun- 
tain valleys, where hay is old at $3 to $4 a ton in the stack, to men 
who graze cattle and sheep on the adjacent ranges. 

Thus much is clear, it never pays the farmer to let his stock 
go backward for the sake of selling hay at a high price. The policy 
is also mistaken which sells hay from a farm much in need of 
fertility unless the price is such that it will justify selling the hay 
and buying the needed fertility in the form of commercial fertil- 
izers. 

When hay is fed to live stock, the resultant product in meat, 
wool, milk or labor, is only a part of the farmer's return. He has 
also the fertility obtained from feeding it. It is common to estimate 
that the fertility offsets the cost of labor from feeding the hay. 
Usually it is worth much more than such labor. 

It should be observed also that hay composed of legumes is 
usually much more valuable for feeding than non-leguminous hay, 
and the resultant fertility is also much greater. On the other 
hand non-leguminous hay, as timothy anc! red top, is most in demand 
in the markets and brings the high* : . price. If therefore hay is to 
be sold from the farm, let it be hay that is non-leguminous in char- 
acter. Such hay ships much better than the other, since it breaks 
less while being handled. For some kinds of hay there is virtually 
no market off the farm and probably it is well that it is so, as they 
can be utilized so well on the farm. Such are sorghum and Kafir 
corn hay. 

Usually it pays better to feed hay on the farm than to sell it. 
Where it does the farmer should aim so to stock his farm that the 
animals on the same will consume it all. The great truth that 
should ever be remembered, is that the relation between abundant 
stock-keeping and high values of land and profits from it, is of the 
closest possible kind. 

Prof. Thos. Shaw, 

St. Anthony, Minn. 



Up-to-date Dairying 

THE DAIRY FARM— FEED AND CARE OF THE COWS- 
USE OF THE CREAM SEPARATOR. 



By Clinton D. Smith 




OOD Clean Flavor Most Desired in Butter.— A 

man is judged by his ideals and his success by his 
approach to them. 

The dairyman has his ideals made for him by 
the tastes and whims of the consumers of his prod- 
ucts. They are not of his making, but he must 
conform to them. When the wealthy -city resident 
goes out to buy something to spread on his bread, 
he aims for the grocery which will furnish him 
butter of good flavor, according to his idea of 
flavor, of good yellow color, salted just right and 
with a texture characteristic of butter, with water 
and salt mingled with the butterfat in such quantities and in such 
distribution as to appear as shining points in the surface of the 
broken sample. In other words the purchaser of the best butter 
wants, above everything else, a good clean flavor. Next he values 
most the body, texture, the grain, next to that possibly the color and 
finally the salt. Unconsciously he makes up the score card like this, 
counting ioo as perfect for the butter as a whole and counting 
perfection on each particular point the number set opposite in the 
card : 

BUTTER SCORE CARD. 

Flavor 45 points 

Body 25 ' " 

Color 15 " 

Salt 10 

Package 5 " 



Total 100 

Discriminating Buyer Smells Carefully — The discriminating 
buyer will smell the butter carefully to note whether there are odors 
hanging about it which he does not like and which the sensitive 
tongue of his wife or daughter will note with disgust when they 
come to eat it. 

He will find photographed in the butter all the separate stages 
in its manufacture from the cow to the consumer. If the cow has 
been improperly fed, on food with strong odors, the ghosts of 
those vegetable aromas will be there. 

If the udder has been unclean and the milker has allowed 
dirt to fall into the milk, the unpleasant essences of that unmen- 
tionable filth will attend to give a bad flavor to an otherwise per- 
fect product. 

If the utensils have not been properly washed, the bacteria 
developed in the seams of pails, pans and strainers will have left 
their multitudinous descendants to 1 plague the butter seller. 

87 



88 FARM SCIENCE. 



If the cream has been improperly handled, if it has been allowed 
to stand in the can for I ot days lengthened out into a week, until 
it is rancid, moldy and rotten, the bad elements thus created have 
not taken unto themselves wings and flown away. 

1 hey are there yet and off goes a dozen points on the score of 
flavor. If the buttermaker has not known how to make and control 
his "starter," the evils introduced in the prior history of the cream 
are intensified instead of reduced and the buyer has them in new 
and enlarged editions. 

Illustrated History of the Dairy — The butter is an illustrated 
history of the dairy and factory whence it came, an album with 
accurate photographs of men, cows and surroundings, of processes, 
of daily sins and dairy vices, a condensation of praise or blame for 
all men who have been interested in its making. 

Do not think for a moment that the discriminating buyer is a 
crank. He is nothing of the kind. He simply knows what he wants 
and intends to take nothing else. He wants butter well made 
from absolutely clean materials and knows that if there has been 
neglect anywhere it will show itself in the flavor, hence he trains 
his nose and tongue to recognize the peculiar trends of flavor that 
indicate dirt and carelessness and rejects all samples having them. 

Naturally the color, salt, package and even the texture of the 
butter are factors within the control of the buttermaker, of the 
man who takes the cream from the hands of the farmer and manu- 
factures it into butter. With them we have little to do, but with 
the flavor we have much to do; because the flavor is largely made 
by the men who keep the cows and it is with these men that we 
are to talk in this part of this booklet. 

Few Learn to Pick Good Butter from Poor — The quantity 
of butter made, as well as its quality, is of prime importance to the 
dairymen, but the quantity is easily measured by the scales while 
few among the thousands of cow keepers have ever learned to 
pick out good butter from poor or to know why this package should 
sell for ten cents per pound more than that. 

The butter that my wife makes may be good enough for me to 
eat but it is not good enough for me to sell if it be not so made 
that it ought to bring and will bring the highest market price. 

At the very outset of his career, the dairyman ought to learn 
to score butter, using a score card like the one above, until his 
practiced eye and nose will unerringly lead him to right judgment 
when a sample of butter is submitted to him for criticism. Butter 
judging is not guess work, it is an art at which the milk producers 
ought to become adept. 

Largest Quantity of Butter at Minimum Cost — The utmost 
measure of the dairyman's success, if he is going into the keeping of 
cows for the production of butter, is the largest quantity of the 
best butter, produced at least cost and sold at the highest price. 
A good many superlatives, it is true, but we are after the utmost 
limit of profit and should not content ourselves with less. Let us 
look at these superlatives, one by one. 

The largest quantity of butter produced at least cost means 
good sized herds of good cows, wisely fed. It is the function of 
the cow to eat what grows on the farm. The farm may not be 
run altogether for her special benefit, but she is there to convert 
what the fields produce into milk. 



UP-TO-DATE DAIRYING. 89 



What feeds shall be bought to go with what the farm produces 
will depend not upon her physiological wants but upon the economics 
involved. The farm ought to produce about all she will need to 
do her best work at least cost. 

Private Customers or the Creamery When it comes to sell- 
ing the butter for the best price and making butter that will bring 
the best price, there are two roads before us and which shall be 
chosen depends on circumstances. 

If we have within the circle of our acquaintances, wealthy people 
in some city who know what good butter is and are willing and 
able to pay for it a price that is satisfactory, then the thing to do 
is to sell to private customers. 

Without these advantages, it is better far to sell to a creamery 
equipped with the latest and best buttermaking devices operated by 
an expert, trained in the dairy schools, capable of turning out a 
uniformly good package of butter every day and able also to sell 
it in the best market at the highest price. 

The factors, then, in profitable buttermaking are the feed, the 
cow, the milk, the cream and the factory. Let us consider them in 
that order. 

Corn and Clover Essential Crops In all Northern United 

States there are at least two crops which every dairyman ought to 
raise. A third is appearing on the scene, probably to remain as a 
most important addition to our list, but with future yet uncertain. 
The two main crops ought to be corn and clover. Alfalfa is the 
new baby, likely to grow into a giant but possibly to succumb a 
little later on to adverse winters and too harsh summers. 

The Possibilities of the Corn Crop.— Corn is grown because 
it produces a greater amount of feed per acre and per dollar put 
into it than any other crop. It does if it is wisely grown, and does 
not if it is fooled with. 

Every wise dairyman who wants to produce milk at least cost 
looks after his seed corn in the fall. He has an ideal in his mind 
and selects his seed toward that ideal. 

To produce corn at low cost the seed must be right, must be 
selected early, must be well dried before hard freezing and tested 
for germination in the early spring. It must be planted in a regular 
rotation, in soil well manured with cow manure hauled to the field 
during the winter as fast as made and spread as fast as hauled, 
to be plowed under in the early spring. This obtains thorough ad- 
mixture of the manure with the soil and also a chance to kill the 
weeds with the harrow before the corn is planted. 

Silage Safe Food for Dairy Cows — When harvested the corn 
is put naturally in a silo, perhaps of wood, perhaps of cement. 
There it is kept in succulent and palatable condition ready for the 
cow at any time in the next year or two years or even later. Silage 
is a safe feed for dairy cows, giving no bad flavor to the milk or 
to the butter. 

It is, probably, the cheapest source of starch and sugar and 
similar compounds that the American dairyman possesses. 

Silos can be built at small cost to the ton capacity and the 
silage can be stored at slight expense. The silo is therefore com- 



90 FARM SCIENCE. 



ing more and more into use. Remember the rules and do not 
build too big. Do not build too small. Build just right. 

In determining the size of the silo horizontally, remember that 
for winter feeding the silo should contain eight square feet of 
horizontal area to the cow. Thus if the herd is to include twenty 
cows, the silo should have eight times twenty or one hundred and 
sixty square feet of horizontal surface. If the silo is to' be round, 
it would need to be not far from fourteen feet in diameter to con- 
tain this number of square feet. 

In the same way the diameter of the silo to meet the require- 
ments of a herd of any size can be determined. Remember simply 
the eight square feet surface and multiply by the number of cows. 

As to height, remember that you will need to feed down an 
inch and a half a day. The winter feeding will need to be con- 
tinued for fully a hundred and eighty days each winter and the silo 
ought to provide for it. This means that the packed 'silage ought 
to be fully twenty-four feet deep. To make provision for settling, 
the silo must therefore be fully thirty feet deep. 

Soiling the Herd and the Summer Silo. — On high priced land 
it can hardly pay to pasture the cows as they do not get enough 
feed to the acre to pay the interest on the cost of the land and 
besides the same area will yield four or five times as much feed 
in the shape of corn that it will in the shape of pasture. 

Resort has been had to feeding the cows green crops through 
the summer. Rye has been sown in August for early spring feed, 
and a poor enough feed it is too. Alfalfa, clover, oats and peas, 
mammoth clover, millet, sweet corn and field corn have followed 
each other through the season in the ration of the dairy cow on 
many farms. 

This method of keeping the cows from pasture and feeding a 
succession of suitable crops is called soiling. It pays well enough 
when the weather is all right but is inconvenient, to say the least, 
when rainy days follow each other in quick succession. 

The summer silo offers the best solution of the summer feed- 
ing of non-pastured cows. Build the summer silo of less diameter 
than the winter silo for the herd of the given size. Allow only 
six square feet of horizontal surface to the cow in the summer silo 
and feed down two inches per day instead of one and a half. Even 
then it is not easy so to fill the silo and care for it that the silage 
will not tend to spoil down faster than the cows eat it in the hot 
days of July and August. 

Why Clover Should he Grown on Dairy Farms — The eco- 
nomical dairyman will rely upon his silage as the basis of the ration 
of his cows. With the silage he will feed clover hay. The clover 
is the one crop on the farm that yields a good crop of forage and 
at the same time leaves the ground richer for having grown it. 
Experiments have shown that in the roots of medium red clover, 
when yielding a harvest of a ton and a half of dry hay to the acre, 
there was as much plant food per acre as would be found in pos- 
sibly eight or even ten good loads of barnyard manure. 

This plant food comes partly from the air and partly from the 
lower depths of the soil out of the reach of the cereals and is 
stored in the surface eight or nine inches of the soil for the most 
part, there to decay, when the field is plowed, and to give up the 
plant food for the next crop, slowly, just as that crop will want it. 



UP-TO-DATE DAIRYING. 91 



The Chemist and the Ration of the Cow Clover fits into 

the ration with silage most perfectly. It is rich in the very elements 
in which silage is poor. 

The chemists call that class of elements in the ration of the 
cow that corresponds to the red muscle of lean meat, to the white 
of eggs and to the cheesy part of cheese in the ration of men, 
protein. That word is now so common that we need not de- 
fine it. 

The sugar and starch and similar compounds they call carbo- 
hydrates, which is also a word in too common use among dairy- 
men to need definition here. 

Chemists and cows have worked together over most of the 
foods in use in American dairies and the results of their work has 
been compiled into tables. These tables give the amount of digest- 
ible protein in one column and of digestible carbohydrates and fat 
in another, while in the third they give the ration between the protein 
on the one hand and the carbohydrate and fat on the other. 

All of these points are important because a well nourished cow, 
turning out twenty or thirty pounds of milk a day containing a 
pound of fat needs a good supply of protein for the support of her 
body and for the cheese in the milk and a large amount of- carbo- 
hydrates and fat to keep her warm and to supply part at least of 
the materials out of which the fat of the butter is made. 

Good Feeding Must Be Continuous The cow has no crea- 
tive function and must take in at the mouth all that she sends out 
through the udder. She must be well and even highly fed if she 
is to yield a profitable mess of milk. Moreover the good feeding 
must be continuous through the season as it is hard to bring a cow 
to her full mess where she has shrunk in her yield. It means good 
pasture in summer, and good feeding in warm and comfortable quar- 
ters, sunny and well ventilated, in the winter. 

The above standard ration of 2.06 pounds of protein a day with 
fully 14 pounds of carbohydrates and fat ought to be kept in mind 
and the feeds mixed in such proportions as to give these amounts 
daily to each cow 

The nutritive ration will then be one to seven or perhaps as low 
as one to six. These tables and rules are to aid in guiding the 
experienced feeder. They can never take the place of experience. 

Richness of Milk in Fat Remains the Same.— Experiments 
and observations at several experiment stations have shown that the 
richness of milk in fat remains about the same with a given cow 
from her first calf on through her life. Changes in feed affect 
only temporarily and then to no great degree. 

A cow gives richer milk when she is almost through milking 
for the year and is rapidly drying up than when she is fresh. But 
none of the changes in feed or other conditions can fundamentally 
modify the composition of the milk. This means that if you want 
a cow to supply the family with rich milk, you must buy a Jersey 
or Guernsey, breeds which have inherited from generations of rich 
milkers the ability to yield milk rich in fat. If you want yellow 
milk, buy a Guernsey. If you want a large quantity of milk, buy 
a Holstein. The milk will not be as rich as would be the milk of 
the Channel Island cattle but it will be rich enough for family use 
and the quantity will be large if the cow be a good one of the breed. 



92 



FARM SCIENCE. 



If a fairly large mess of good milk is wanted the Ayrshire ought 
not to be forgotten, the breed that has made Scotland famous. 

Breed Does Not Guarantee a Payer — The fact that a cow 
belongs to a given breed however, does not make her a paying mem- 
ber of the farmer's herd. All cows should be carefully tested before 
admitting them to the herd. Their milk should be weighed daily 
for some time and samples taken for the Babcock test. If it is 
found that the amount of fat secreted by the cow be insufficient to 




CHAIN DRIVE CREAM HARVESTER DAIRYMAID. 

pay a good profit over the cost of her feed she ought not to be 
kept. Her form will come out all right if she is a good milker. 
Test that matter the first thing whether she is a member of the 
herd or whether she is offered for you to buy. 

Importance of Test for Tuberculosis Next the cow pro- 
posed for the herd should be tested with tuberculin. If she reacts, 
she undoubtedly has tuberculosis and her milk ought not to be 
used either for consumption as milk or for manufacture into butter 
or cheese. There are altogether too many deaths now from con- 
sumption to allow any avenue through which additional infection 
may enter, to remain open. The public has a right to demand that 
all dairy herds should be tested for this dread disease. 

Good feed will do much to make a herd not well selected yield 
paying quantities of milk. At one of the Government Experiment 



UP-TO-DATE DAIRYING. 93 



Stations, a herd of twenty-nine cows was gathered together with 
no selection at all, taking practically all cows offered, yet good feed 
continuously fed produced a yield of over 6,000 pounds of milk to 
the cow per year and over 300 pounds of butter. 

Had the same amount of feed been given a herd of selected 
cows, the results would have been still more surprising. From a 
given weight of feed, one cow in a certain stable made 370 pounds 
of butter in a year while her stable mate yielded but 250. 

It is not all in the feed therefore. If profit is to be expected 
the scales and the tester must select out the cows that have the 
proper capacity. 

The advantage of pure-bred stock lies in the fact that the 
good qualities of the cows are much more likely to be transmitted 
to the offspring than they are when the breeding is mixed. A pure- 
bred sire should be used for the same reason. 

The Four C's of the Dairy Business The four C's of the 

dairy business are Cows, Comfort, Cleanliness and Cold. The mat- 
ter of cleanliness is suggested the moment we think of milk and 
milking. 

Whole volumes have been written about the necessity of every- 
thing being clean about milk because that fluid is so impressionable 
not alone to tastes imparted to it by filth in solid and liquid 
forms but to odors as well, coming into it through the air. 

Cleanliness begins therefore in the stable and is continued 
through the entire history of the milk. 

The Stable — The stables themselves must be so built that the 
air is changed frequently, that is, it must be well ventilated. At 
the same time it must be warm to afford the cow comfort. This 
means that the side walks and the overhead must be tight and 
frost proof with the air admitted through channels provided for 
the purpose and the foul odors carried off through ducts leading 
to the roof and above. 

The old idea that cracks should be left unbattened in the sides 
has been done away with in modern stables and a system has been, 
introduced by which the changes of air are accomplished without 
sharp currents to give the animals colds, yet with sufficient- rapidity 
to keep the air of the stable wholesome and free from bad smells. 

Sunlight the Great Destroyer of Germs — Sunlight is fur- 
nished free by nature to preserve the health of all animal life. It 
is the germ destroyer. It is necessary to admit the sunlight freely 
to all parts of the stable. For this reason, the ridgepole of the barn 
ought to run north and south to admit the sunlight on the east 
side of the barn in the forenoon and on the west side in the after- 
noon. 

Big round or square barns with the cows huddled together in 
masses are bad. So are basement barns if the sunlight is excluded 
by the earih on one side or possibly on two. 

The barn ought to be long and narrow, not more than two 
rows of cows being accommodated. These cows may face in to- 
ward a central feeding alley or they may face outward leaving a 
broad passageway in the middle through which a wagon may be 
driven for the manure which is hauled directly to the field and 
spread from the wagon, thus never being hand'ed more than once. 
Or the manure spreader itself may be driven through the barn in 



94 FARM SCIENCE. 



the morning after milking and receive the manure as it is shovelled 
from the gutters. 

Manure Taken Out By Suspended Cars. — If the cows face 
toward a central feeding alley, the manure may be taken out of the 
stable by means of suspended cars, hanging from a steel track above 
the gutters and so arranged as to empty automatically on the 
manure wagon or spreader stationed near the stable door. 

Of the two methods of arranging the cows it is difficult to 
decide which ought to be preferred. Where are cows face in there 
are no obstructions to the entry of the sunlight which may be al- 
lowed to flood the whole floor where the cattle stand. If the cow 
fasteners and mangers are thrust up toward the windows they 
stop the sunlight in great part and the floors on which the cows 
stand are kept in perpetual shade. 

The floor should be of cement, not troweled smooth but left 
somewhat rough that it may not be slippery when wet. Such a 
floor is somewhat more expensive at first cost than wooden floors 
but its permanent character and the fact that it may be kept clean 
and free from odors is enough in itself to decide every dairyman in 
its favor. 

The milk must be kept pure. This means floors that can be 
scrubbed and that will dry out, not wooden floors but cement. 

Clean Milkers and Clean Milking — The stable should be pro- 
vided with brushes readily attached to the milking stools or accom- 
panying them. The milkers should be encouraged to use these 
brushes before milking and if such milkers are naturally cleanly, 
they should also be encouraged to dampen the udders before be- 
ginning to milk. 

If the milkers are not naturally orderly, systematic and cleanly, 
discharge them and either get clean milkers or quit the business. 
It is impossible to make a filthy man clean by any set of rules or 
by any amount of possible supervision. "Though thou shouldest 
bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not 
his foolishness depart from him." 

The milk is received in pails washed in this way. They are 
first rinsed off in tepid water; then washed in water too hot for 
the hand and containing some cleansing powder or sal soda, the 
washing being done by brushes rather than cloths. They are then 
rinsed with boiling water and steamed if possible, otherwise taken 
from the rinsing water, the loose drops shaken off and allowed to 
dry without wiping. 

The milk is strained through two or three thicknesses of cheese 
cloth which pieces are washed and scalded or boiled between suc- 
cessive hours of milking. 

After straining, the milk is either aerated, cooled and sent to 
the factory or it is run through the separator at home. 

Use of Hand Separator. — The hand separator bids fair to 
revolutionize the dairy industry. By the use of this labor and but- 
ter saver, the farmer can take practically all of the fat from the 
milk and can do it at the time of milking while the milk is warm. 
The skimmilk is then ready for the calves or pigs. 

Who then shall buy a separator? He that has four or more 
cows and wants to make all the butter possible from them at least 
cost. 



UP-TO-DATE DAIRYING. 



95 



Why shall he buy? Because the amount of fat a separator 
saves over the cold deep setting will not only pay the interest on 
the first cost of the machine but will actually pay for the machine 
in a few years, if the number of cows is large enough to warrant. 
Because, too, the skimmilk is not taken into the house at all but 
is fed warm to the young stock. 

Again, if the cream is delivered to a creamery to be made 
into butter, the milk does not have to be hauled to the factory and 
back again. It is kept separate, uncontaminated with skimmilk 
from other sources and is fed before souring. 





SEPARATING BY HAND WITH CHAIN DRIVE CREAM HARVESTER DAIRYMAID. 



An examination of the records of pigs officially condemned as 
tuberculous at the Chicago stock yards shows that the great bulk 
of tuberculous pigs come from the dairy districts and undoubtedly 
get the disease from drinking unpasteurized skimmilk returned 
from the factory. By separating the milk at home the cow owner 
avoids this source of infection for his young stock. 

What Sort of Separator Shall Cow Owner Buy?— The one 
that will skim the largest amount of milk the cleanest in a given 
time with the least force to run it. Separators vary widely in 
capacity. Some of the hand machines will separate only 250 pounds. 
an hour while others will run through fully eight hundred pounds. 



06 FARM SCIENCE. 



Other things being equal the larger machines are the more econom- 
ical. 

Separating milk is a slow job at best. It takes from one to 
two hours a day and this multiplied by the number of days in the 
year grows to a very perceptible share of the working time of the 
season. 

Again it takes no longer to wash and care for a large machine 
than a small one. Finally no one should intend to remain a dairy- 
man with two or three cows. His ambition ought to' be to increase 
the size of his herd until he is carrying all the cows his farm can 
support. The large machine will not have to be exchanged when 
the number of cows increases. The separator should have capa- 
city, skim clean, be durable, simple in construction, easily cleaned 
and easy of separation. 

Separators Location is Important — The care of the separa- 
tor is not a hard problem if the location is right, the foundation 
good and the essentials in the way of accessories are convenient. 

One thing required is pure air. A cow stable will not do be- 
cause the air cannot be kept pure and, although it is handy to have 
the separator right there so you can pour the milk from the pail 
into which it is drawn, through a strainer at the top of the sep- 
arator can, still such a practice is rightly forbidden in the stable 
itself. The separator must be placed where the air is always pure. 

The room where the separator is must be free from dust, hence 
the woodshed is forbidden unless a part of it be partitioned off and 
well floored so that it can be kept clean and sweet. 

The floor of the separator room had better be made of con- 
crete since milk is bound to be slopped over at some time and must 
be washed up with abundance of water. This demands a tight 
sound floor and good drainage. A cement floor is slippery and 
cold but it can be kept much sweeter than a wooden floor. 

The room must be arranged to exclude flies. The separator 
must be kept spotlessly clean and this cannot be done in a room 
to which flies are admitted. Screens to windows and doors are 
necessary, with an occasional use of insect powder to kill off such 
flies as steal in with the milkers. 

The room ought to be where it can be kept cool and yet where 
the sunlight can have free range to kill off bacteria. 

It is not to be understood that the separator is to be set off 
into a world of its own where nothing but pure milk enters and 
only angels can attend it. It is quite possible to build a room as 
an integral part of the barn itself, or as a part of the house, where 
all the requirements are fully met. Pure air, kept pure, free from 
dust and fairly cool with sunlight are the essentials. 

Separator Foundation Should be Masonry — The foundation 
of the separator must be strong, durable and firm The separator 
must be kept from jar. It must run smoothly. It must therefore 
be securely anchored to such foundation as will hold it perfectly 
level and without vibration. 

A heavy bowl at the top of a long spindle is no strain at all 
upon the upper bearing when the machine is level and free from 
snaking but is a hard test of the workrnanship of the builders when 
the spindle is at an angle with the vertical, no matter how small 
that angle may be. It is well to have the foundation of the sep- 
arator rest directly upon masonry on the ground. This implies a 
location not in the second or third story. 



UP-TO-DATE DAIRYING. 



97 



A separator is necessarily a delicate machine requiring intel- 
ligence and some skill in its manipulation. Not only must it be 
properly placed, it must be kept in perfect condition. The bear- 
ings must be kept clean and well oiled. The fixtures in the bowl 
must be put in as the directions require. The cap of the bowl must 
be screwed on tight; the tinware must be put in place and kept in 
place and the separator must be turned at the speed designated by 
the makers. 

Factors Determining the Richness of the Cream The 

richness of the cream in fat depends upon many conditions. If 




GEAR DRIVE CREAM HARVESTER BLUEBELL. 



the separator be turned faster than the regulations call for, the 
cream will be richer in fat. If turned slower than it ought to be 
turned the cream will be poorer in fat. 

If the milk be rich in fat, the cream will have a higher per 
cent of fat than will the cream from milk with less fat in it. 

If the milk flows into the separator too fast, the cream will be 
low in fat. If the feed be restricted, the per cent of fat in the 



cream will go up. 



The temperature of the milk affects slightly the per cent of 
fat in the cream, but not to an important degree. 

The richness of the cream is controlled almost absolutely by 
the position of the cream screw. Each machine can thus be regu- 



98 FARM SCIENCE. 



lated to turn out from milk of given composition a cream of any 
richness desired. For buttermaking the cream should be as rich 
as is consistent with perfect skimming. 

Daily Care of the Separator — The rules in regard to the care 
of the separator are simple and inevitable from the considerations 
already had. 

In the first place the separator must be washed every time it is 
used. The washing should be done methodically, rinsing off the 
milk in tepid water, then washing with very hot water containing 
a cleansing powder or borax, then rinsing in boiling water and 
steaming, if possible. 

Let the bowl dry without wiping. Wash the tinware in the 
same way, doing the work most thoroughly. 

Next the separator stand must be kept clean, free from dust. 
All exposed parts should be wiped clean, the surplus oil removed 
and the whole surroundings maintained in sweet and sanitary con- 
dition. 

Experiment Stations have shown that the foul bowl will in- 
crease the bacterial content of milk to an incredible extent. When 
the separator is washed but each alternate day the number of 
bacteria in the milk forced through it is so large that the skimmilk 
is unfit to feed to pigs. If the separator is clean, running milk 
through it reduces the number of bacteria fully a fifth and often 
a fourth. 

The slime collecting on the inside of the bowl should be 
burned as it contains the bulk of the germs contained in the milk. 

Places should be provided for the parts of the separator when 
taken apart. They must be kept out of dust. 

Operating the Separator. — If the separator is to do good 
work, is to remove the fat from the milk down to 1 one or two one 
hundredths of a per cent it must be run right, as well as be put 
together right. 

In actual practice, the point most often disregarded is the item 
of speed. The monotony of turning a crank leads to neglect and 
the speed falls below the point of good service. The directions may 
say forty-two turns to the minute. The operator unconsciously allows 
the speed to drop to thirty-two. A loss of fat in the skimmilk 
follows. 

Again the temperature of the milk may fall too low. Few, if 
any, separators will do good work at a temperature below eighty 
degrees, and all separator makers have a right to demand that the 
users shall have their milk as warm as that. 

The milk may be sour and partly loppered. This presents a 
hard and possibly an impossible problem to the machine. Sep- 
arators are built to handle sweet milk only. 

A separator ought to last a long time and do good work to the 
last. They may seem costly to the dairyman but the first cost 
should be divided over many years of use and will be so divided if 
the machines have good care. Delicate machines cannot be left to 
care for themselves. The women of the house can take care of 
them well enough if the men will turn them and will lift out 
the bowls and take them apart. 

To drive the separators various kinds of power are in use. 
The gasoline engines are popular. Bulls or horses on tread powers 



UP-TO-DATE DAIRYING. 



99 



do the work. Steam engines are called for in dairies large enough 
to call for much steam for cleansing purposes. Any source of 
power will do that will give a steady and unvarying speed. 

The Cream Should Be Cooled at Once — The two products 
of the separator are the cream and the skimmilk. The cream is 
the most valuable and its care should receive the attention of the 
prudent dairyman. Two principal rules are to be observed in ref- 
erence to it. 

In the first place the cream must be cooled at once and kept 
cold. The bacteria living in cream are of two kinds, as far as 
their final effects upon the cream are concerned. 




"bluebell" ready for work. 

One kind of germs sour the cream, the other kind bring about 
fermentations resulting in unhealthy products. If the cream is 
kept cold, neither of these products develop rapidly. 

As soon therefore as the separator stops, the can of cream 
ought to be put in a tank of cold water and cooled down as fast 
as possible to below fifty degrees. 

If ice is at hand it ought to be used, not in the cream surely, 
but in the water surrounding- the can. If no ice can be had, the 
water about the cream should be changed frequently and often 
enough to rapidly cool the cream. The low temperature should 
be maintained until the cream is delivered at the factory or until 
enough has been gathered at home for the churning. 



100 FARM SCIENCE. 



If delivery to the factory is the fate of the cream, the delivery 
should be made as often as twice a week that the bad bacteria 
may have no opportunity to grow. If the churning is to be made 
at home, it ought to be done as often as twice a week if the best 
butter is to be made. 

The future of the hand separator hangs on the fate of agricul- 
tural education. If farmers will take proper care of the separators 
and of the cream, the hand separator has come to stay. If they 
will not, the separator must go. Consumers demand that cream 
shall be made from pure milk and shall be kept cool and free 
from infection with bad germs. 

The dairyman can make pure milk if he will keep his cows 
and his stables clean, his methods systematic, his utensils bright and 
sweet, the air of his cow stables and dairy room, pure and free 
from bad odors. He "an make his cream sweet if he will keep 
his separator clean ana will cool his cream and keep it cold and 
clean. 

Value of Skimmilk as Food for Stock — -The signal value of 
the separator lies in the fact that it leaves the skimmilk at home to 
be fed warm to calves and pigs. With pigs selling at $3.80 a 
hundred and with corn meal worth $16.00 per ton the skimmilk 
was shown to be worth for feeding young pigs fully 24 cents to 
the hundred ; when the pigs were larger, it was worth twenty cents 
to the hundred. For calves it is usually worth more than it is 
for pigs. 

When feeding either calves or pigs, regularity must be ob- 
served. If feeding skimmilk sweet, feed it sweet all the time. If 
feeding it sour, feed it sour all the time. The trouble with sep- 
arator skimmilk returned from the whole milk factory is that some 
days, when the weather is cool, the skimmilk comes home sweet, 
the next day when it is hot, it comes back sour. The hand sep- 
arator at home avoids these troubles. 

Separator Will Pay for Right Use — Will a separator pay? 
In the hands of the right man, Yes ! In the hands of the careless 
man, No ! The quality of the man decides this business question 
as it decides others. The man with good business sense, who can 
smell a bargain afar off will succeed in business and will accumu- 
late cash. 

The man without business capacity may still succeed in the 
world but he will not be the owner of much of this world's goods. 
The man of energy, prudence and progress will succeed because 
he will obey the natural laws that make for success. In his hands 
the separator will pay. 

Clinton D. Smith, 
Director of Michigan Experiment Station, 

Agricultural College, Michigan. 



Increasing Fertility 



ELEMENTS OF SOIL AND THEIR VALUE TO CROPS- 
FERTILIZERS AND SOIL-BUILDING. 



B\ Cyril G. LIopkins 




F he who makes two blades of grass grow where only 
one grew before is a public benefactor, then he who 
reduces the fertility of the soil so that only one ear 
or corn grows where two have been grown before is 
a public curse. 

Agriculture is the fundamental support of the 
American Nation, and soil fertility is the absolute 
support of agriculture. 

Without agriculture, America is nothing. The 
forest and the earth supply the timber, the stone, and 
the metal to build and equip railroad and factory 
and the fuel to operate mill and locomotive, but di- 
rectly or indirectly these great industries are absolutely dependent 
on agriculture for their continued existence. 

The Two Functions of the Soil — The soil has two distinct func- 
tions to perform in crop production. First, the soil must furnish a 
home for the plant, where the roots can penetrate the earth upon 
which the plant must stand. Second, the soil must furnish plant 
food, or nourishment, for the growth, development, and maturing 
of the plant. 

To improve the physical condition of the soil is to improve the 
home of the plant, while to add to the soil, or to liberate from the 
soil, fertilizing materials is to increase the available supply of plant 
food. 

One soil may furnish an excellent home for the plant, but a 
very insufficient supply of plant food; while another soil may con- 
tain abundance of plant food, but the physical conditions may be 
such as to make an unfit lodging place for the plant. 

The Six Essential Factors in Crop Production — There are 
six essential and positive factors in crop production; (i) the seed, 
(2) the home or lodging place, (3) moisture, (4) heat, (5) light, 
and (6) plant food. Some negative factors are injury from insects 
and plant diseases. 

Good seed is exceedingly important and the quality of the seed 
selected and planted is largely under the control of the farmer. 

By proper drainage and by the use of organic matter and by 
proper tillage, thus maintaining good physical conditions, the farmer 
may provide a suitable home for the plant, remove surplus water, 
render the soil more capable of absorbing and retaining necessary 
moisture, and control the temperature to some extent by lessening 
evaporation and by changing the color of the soil as by the addition 
of organic matter. 

More than five times as much heat is required to evaporate water 
from the surface of the soil as would be needed to raise the tem- 

IOI 



102 FARM SCIENCE. 



perature of the same amount of water from the freezing to the boil- 
ing point. It is because of this that wet, poorly drained soils are 
cold. Dark soils absorb more heat and consequently are warmer 
than light colored soils. 

Light is a factor over which man has no direct or positive control, 
but he has full control over some negative factors, such as weeds, 
which if allowed to grow might largely prevent the light from 
reaching the young plants. Indeed, the first and greatest damage 
caused by weeds is due to the fact that they shut off the light from 
the growing plants. If the supply of moisture or of plant food is 
insufficient for both the crop and the weeds, then the weeds may 
rob the growing crop of these essentials to some extent. 

So-called nurse crops, such as oats or wheat when growing 
with clover, may grow so thick and rank as to injure to a marked 
extent the clover by shutting out the light, also by robbing the 
clover plants of moisture and plant food. To avoid these injuries 
or difficulties, the clover should be started with a very light seeding 
of wheat or oats (about one bushel to the acre) preferably planted 
in drills running north and south, which will permit the strong 
midday light to reach the clover plants. 

If oats are seeded as the nurse crop they should be an early 
maturing variety or they may be pastured off or cut early for oat 
hay. The surest method of obtaining a good setting of clover is to 
sow it without a nurse crop and clip the weeds with a mower if 
necessary. 

The least understood and the most neglected essential factor in 
crop production is plant food. Food of required kinds and in suffi- 
cient quantity is as necessary for plants as for animals ; and it is 
even more important to provide an ample and balanced ration for 
corn than for cattle, because cattle are usually able to move about 
and find some food for themselves, while the corn plants are sta- 
tionary and limited to the food within reach of their roots. 

The Ten Essential Plant Food Elements There are ten 

different elements of plant food, each of which is absolutely essential 
to agricultural plants. These elements are carbon, hydrogen, oxy- 
gen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and 
sulfur. 

Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen which constitute more than 90 
per cent of most agricultural plants are contained in air and water, 
the supply being unlimited. The four elements, calcium, magnesi- 
um, iron, and sulfur, although absolutely essential to plant growth, 
are required in very small amounts, while they are present in prac- 
tically all soils in inexhaustible quantities. 

On the other hand, the three elements, nitrogen, phosphorus, 
and potassium, are required by plants in very considerable amounts, 
and soils are frequently found which are so deficient in one or 
more of these three elements as to limit the yields of crops. It should 
be understood that soils are never found which are entirely devoid 
of nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium. Even the poorest and most 
unproductive soils still contain at least some small supply of each 
of these elements, and as a general rule such so-called exhausted 
soils contain at least one and frequently two of these valuable ele- 
ments in large amount, the low productive capacity being due to the 
deficiency of one or two elements only. 

Sometimes the element which the plant fails to obtain in suffi- 
cient quantity for its normal growth, the element which positively 



INCREASING FERTILITY. 103 



limits the yield of the crop, is actually present in the soil in very 
large amount. In such cases the practice should not be to add to 
the soil more of this plant food element, but to adopt methods of 
soil treatment and management by which we can liberate a sufficient 
amount of this element for maximum profitable crop yields. This 
point will be further discussed in the following pages. 

Nitrogen — The element nitrogen ought never to be bought in 
general farming. The atmospheric pressure is 15 pounds to the 
square inch. Of this, about 12 pounds pressure is due to the nitro- 
gen contained in the air. If we compute the value of this nitrogen 
at 15 cents a pound, the price commonly paid for the nitrogen in 
commercial fertilizers, we find about eleven million dollars' worth 
of nitrogen resting on every acre of the earth's surface. 

It is true that such crops as corn, oats, wheat, timothy, cotton, 
and tobacco have no power to make any direct use of this atmos- 
pheric nitrogen, but there is a class of plants known as legumes, 
including such valuable agricultural plants as red clover, alsike, 
alfalfa, crimson clover, cow peas, soy beans, vetch, etc.! upon the 
roots of which there are or should be small nodules or tubercles, 
varying' from the size of pin heads upon clover roots to that of 
peas upon soy beans, in which live great numbers of very minute, 
microscopic organisms, called bacteria, which have power to take 
nitrogen from the air as it enters the pore? of the soil, to cause this 
free gaseous nitrogen to combine with other elements in suitable 
form for plant food which is then taken up by the clover or other 
legumes for its own growth. 

If the roots and stubble are left to decay in the ground the nitro- 
gen which they contain becomes available to succeeding crops of 
corn or other grains or grasses. If the entire legume crop is 
plowed under as green manure, then all of the nitrogen taken from 
the air is left in the soil for succeeding crops. 

If the crops are fed to animals provided with plenty of absorb- 
ent litter or bedding, as straw or refuse shredded corn fodder, so 
that all liquid excrement is saved, then about 75 per cent of the 
nitrogen contained in the feed may be returned to the land in the 
farm manure. 

In very intensive farming, as in market gardening near large 
cities where the land is too valuable to be given up even for a part 
of a year to the growing of legumes for fertilizing purposes, then 
it becomes necessary to apply nitrogen and this is also profitable, 
for the products of one acre frequently bring $100 or more for one 
season. 

Where it can be obtained, stable manure is usually the most 
economical and satisfactory form in which to apply nitrogen in 
market gardening, although dried blood, tankage, sodium nitrate and 
ammonium sulfate are also used with profit at times. 

Phosphorus. — If the element phosphorus becomes deficient in 
the soil, the total supply can be increased only by making an actual 
application of some kind of material containing phosphorus. 

It is well to bear in mind that about three-fourths of the phos- 
phorus required for ordinary grain crops is stored in the seed or 
grain, while only one-fourth remains in the straw or stalks. Con- 
sequently, when corn or wheat is sold from the farm three-fourths 
of the phosphorus required to produce the crop leaves the farm 
in the grain. 



104 FARM SCIENCE. 



When the crops are fed to animals, especially to growing animals 
or milk cows, from one-fourth to one-third of the phosphorus con- 
tained in the feed is retained in the bones, flesh, and milk, while 
about three-fourths is returned in the manure. 

The total phosphorus content of the soil on any given farm may 
be increased by the purchase of stable manure or by using manure 
made from purchased feeds, especially from grains or other con- 
centrates, as bran, oil meal, or gluten feed; or we may purchase 
steamed bone meal from the stock yards companies who buy our 
cattle, slag phosphate from the steel works if the slag contains 
sufficient phosphorus to make it valuable, or natural rock phosphate 
direct from the extensive natural phopshate deposits in Tennessee, 
South Carolina, or Florida, where this mineral is being mined and 
ground in large amounts. It may be noted that the original stock 
of phosphorus naturally in the soil is ground rock phosphate. 

Potassium — Potassium, like phosphorus, is a mineral element 
contained in the soil, and if the supply in the soil is deficient it 
can only be increased by a direct application to the soil of some 
material. As a matter of fact aside from peaty swamp lands and 
some very sandy lands, the potassium contained in most 'soils is 
practically inexhaustible. The average corn belt soil of central and 
northern Illinois contains as much total potassium in the first seven 
inches as would be required for ioo bushels of corn (grain only) 
each year for nineteen centuries. 

Of course the stalks which are rich in potassium should be re- 
turned to the soil, either directly or in manure. Even if they are 
burned (which should be the exception and not the rule) the potas- 
sium remains in the ash. 

Peaty swamp soils are frequently exceedingly deficient in both 
available and total potassium as compared with normal soils, and 
where the supply of farm manure is limited, commercial potassium 
salts may be applied to such land with very great profit. Potassium 
sulfate and potassium chlorid (frequently, though incorrectly, called 
muriate of potash) are the most economical and satisfactory com- 
mercial potassium fertilizers. 

Kainit is sometimes used, but it contains only 10 per cent of 
potassium while potassium sulfate usually contains 40 per .cent and 
potassium chlorid contains about 42 per cent of the element potas- 
sium. 

About 200 pounds of potassium sulfate or potassium chlorid will 
supply sufficient potassium for a hundred-bushel crop of corn, and 
on very peaty land where corn will not grow, such an application 
is recommended. The subsequent applications may be reduced in 
accordance with the amounts of potassium returned in the stalks 
and in the farm manure made from feeding the crop. But in deal- 
ing with soils of low productive capacity, of whatsoever class, it 
must be remembered that we must first grow large crops before 
we can make large amounts of manure, and if necessary we must 
always be ready to supplement our farm manure with any needed 
plant food if it can be obtained and used with profit. 

Because soils deficient in potassium are usually abnormal and 
exist only in restricted areas, this class of soils will not be further 
considered except to mention in this connection that where such 
soils are found, as in some swamp regions, then the addition of 
potassium frequently produces most astonishing increases in crop 
yields. This is well illustrated by the results obtained on the Uni- 



INCREASING FERTILITY. 105 



versity of Illinois soil experiment field near Momence, Illinois, in 
the Kankakee swamp area. 

Crop Yields in Soil Experiments. 
Peaty Swamp Land near Momence, Illinois. 



Plant Food Applied 



None 

Nitrogen . . . 
Phosphorus, 
Potassium . 



Nitrogen, phosphorus 

Nitrogen, potassium , 

Phosphorus, potassium 

Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. 



1903 


Corn, 


Yield p 


er Acre 


7 


bu 


4 


bu. 


5 


bu. 


73 


bu. 


4 


bu. 


7i 


bu. 


73 


bu. 


67 


bu. 



It will be seen that potassium increased the yield of corn by 
more than 60 bushels to the acre. It should be understood that 
some soils which are peaty in the surface with a heavier clayey 
subsoil within reach of the plow can be improved merely by deep 
plowing, for the clayey material is usually rich in potassium. It 
sometimes occurs that a subsoil exists which contains considerable 
amounts of total potassium but this may become available slowly 
unless more actively decaying organic matter than peat is present. 
In such cases even light applications of fresh farm manure may 
produce an effect far exceeding that which is commonly expected. 

Occasionally peaty swamp soils, like other soils, may contain 
some injurious alkali, as magnesium carbonate, in the subsurface 
soil in such amounts as to prevent corn roots from living in it, 
and hence liberal amounts of available potassium provided in the 
surface soil may greatly benefit the crop. Deep peat and peat 
underlaid by clean sand are as a rule deficient in both available 
and total potassium. 

It is well to remember that the seed or grain contains only about 
one-fourth of the potassium required for a crop, while three-fourths 
remains in the straw or stalks ; also that animals retain practically 
none of the potassium consumed in the food, almost all of this 
element being returned in the solid and liquid manure. 

Making Plant Food Available — It is an absolute essential in 
agriculture to have plant food in the soil. If it is not present in 
abundance it should be supplied in the manner that is most eco- 
nomical and profitable, and that which is removed in crops should 
be replaced so far as practicable and profitable, either by returning 
it in farm manure, or by plowing under green manures, corn stalks, 
straw, and other coarse products. 

With a good supply of plant food stored in the soil, then the 
thing of greatest importance in the business of farming is the liber- 
ation of sufficient plant food during the growing season to meet 
the needs of maximum profitable crops. While thorough tillage 
aids in this process, by far the most effective and practical means 
within the fanners' own control for liberating plant food from the 



106 FARM SCIENCE. 



soils supply or from insoluble material, as natural rock phosphate, 
which may have been applied, is decaying vegetable matter. 

The farmer or land owner whose farm practice includes these 
two points; that is, (i) plenty of plant food stored in the soil, and 
(2) plenty of decaying organic matter to liberate plant food for 
the crop needs, will have in operation a system of agriculture which 
is permanent. 

The one point is no more important or essential than the other. 
The man who tries to maintain the fertility of his soil and who 
hopes to continue to grow large profitable grain crops without the 
use of legume crops or plowing under farm manures or coarse pro- 
ducts, but who uses high-priced soluble manufactured commercial 
fertilizers, is unwise, and utimately his land will probably follow 
in the history of the lands which have been practically ruined by 
such practice in the eastern states. 

On the other hand, the man who thinks the productive capacity 
of the ordinary prairie land in the humid regions of Central United 
States can be permanently maintained, merely by the use of clover 
in crop rotation, is also unwise, for this is absolutely impossible. 
So far as phosphorus and potassium are concerned, the use of clover 
in crop rotation is one of our most effective means of liberating 
those plant food elements from the soil so that they may be re- 
moved in subsequent grain crops. Furthermore, clover and other 
legumes are themselves gross feeders on phosphorus and potassium. 

It is almost inexplicable that there are people who write and 
speak at great length and with great energy on the tremendous 
importance of adding nitrogen to the soil as an element of plant 
food, but who completely ignore and even deprecate the matter of 
maintaining in the soil a supply of phosphorus and potassium from 
which we can liberate sufficient amounts for large crops. 

No man can afford to ignore the truth. If there are soils which 
contain so little phosphorus or potassium that we cannot by profit- 
able means liberate sufficient to meet the requirements of large 
crops, then we should increase the supply; and every man should 
be sufficiently unprejudiced to ask frankly whether it is more sen- 
sible and more profitable positively to increase the total supply of 
any element of plant food in his soil or to continue to decrease it 
by means of crop rotations and the use of decaying organic matter. 

For the ordinary strictly live stock farm from which only hogs 
and cattle are sold, there is no such thing as reducing the supply 
of potassium if all liquid and solid manure is carefullv saved and 
returned to the soil, because, as before stated, practically all of the 
potassium contained in the feed is returned in the manure. In 
dairy farming a small amount of potassium leaves the farm if milk 
is sold. 

But even in live stock farming with all manure saved and re- 
turned to the land we still lose the phosphorus carried away in 
bones, flesh, and milk, and this fact should not be ignored by the 
farmer whose crop yields are already limited because of insufficient 
supplies of phosphorus, even with abundant use of decaying organic 
matter supplied in clover and farm manure. Indeed not infre- 
quently we find farmers whose land is so rich in nitrogen and potas- 
sium that they grow great crops of straw and stalks, but the phos- 
phorus is so limited that the actual yield of grain produced is only 
one-half or two-thirds what it should be. Let us remember that 
a balanced ration is just as important for corn as for cattle, and 
that phosphorus is required largely for the grain. 



INCREASING FERTILITY. 



107 



Soils Deficient in Nitrogen — It should be understood that the 
nitrogen in the soil is measured by the organic matter, for the nitro- 
gen is practically all contained in the organic matter. Consequently 
soils which are -deficient in organic matter are also deficient in 
nitrogen. 

There are two classes of soils which are commonly much more 
deficient in nitrogen than in other plant foods. These are the very 
sandy soils and the very rolling or steeply sloping hill lands. 




INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY RETURN APRON MANURE SPREADER 

"corn king" WITH LOAD. 

Improving Sandy Land — While the sandy lands are not rich 
in phosphorus and potassium, they are as a rule moderately well 
supplied with those elements, and such soils are so porous that 
they afford a very deep feeding range for the plant roots, so that 
the actual percentage composition in mineral plant food does not 
fully measure the possible productive capacity of sandy soils as 
compared with more compact silt or clay soils. 




"corn king spreading a thin LAYER OF MANURE. 

As a general rule if the three elements, nitrogen, phosphorus, 
and potassium be added separately to three different plots of very 
sandy land, the nitrogen will increase the yield, while little or no 



108 



FARM SCIENCE. 



increase will be produced by either phosphorus or potassium. After 
plenty of nitrogen has been provided then the addition of potassium 
will still further increase the yield. Actual results obtained on 
the University of Illinois Soil Experiment Field on the sandy land 
near Green Valley, Illinois, will serve to illustrate this : 

Crop Yields in Soil Experiments. 
Sandy Soil near Green Valley, Illinois. 



Soil Treatment Applied 



Nitrogen 

Phosphorus 

Potassium 

Nitrogen, phosphorus 
Nitrogen, potassium. . 



1902 

Corn, 

Bushels 



69 
30 
23 

57 
70 



1903 

Corn, 
Bushels 



65 
25 
20 
70 

73 



1904 

Oats, 
Bushels 



44 
20 

I? 
52 

55 



1905 

Wheat, 
Bushels 



24 

*7 

*7 
27 

37 



It will be noted that where nitrogen was applied the yield is 
more than double that obtained with either of the other elements. 
Except in 1902, phosphorus shows some effect when added to nitro- 
gen, but potassium with nitrogen is more effective, especially in 
1905, when it gave a yield of wheat thirteen bushels higher than 
was obtained with nitrogen alone. It should be stated, perhaps, 
that it is exceedingly difficult to select a number of exactly uniform 
plots for experimental use on this kind of soil and small' differ- 
ences may be attributed to soil variation, but the marked and uni- 
form effects of nitrogen and of nitrogen with potassium are char- 
acteristic of such soil. 

These results help to explain the marked effect of farm manure 
on sandy soils, especially when used for a crop rotation which in- 
cludes legumes. Both the legumes and manure will furnish nitro- 
gen, and the manure is also well supplied with potassium, the bed- 
ding being rich in potassium and all potassium in the feed being 
returned in the manure. It may be noted that on very sandy lands 
clover does not grow well, but either cow peas or soy beans is an 
excellent substitute for clover as both do well on very sandy soil. 

It is exceedingly important that as far as possible all crops 
shall be fed and the manure shall be carefully saved and returned 
to such land, not only for its plant food value, but also for the 
organic matter which is needed to improve the physical condition 
of the soil. 

Improving Worn Hill Land — In actual field experiments on 
worn hill land on the University of Illinois Soil Experiment Field, 
near Vienna, Illinois, the following results have been obtained in a 
three-year rotation of wheat, corn and cow peas. By "legume" 
treatment is meant the growing of legume crops or catch crops, as 
cow peas in the corn, or after the wheat, in the same season, which 
are turned under for the nitrogen and organic matter which they 
add to the soil. 



INCREASING FERTILITY. 



109 



Crop Yields in Soil Experiments. 
Worn Hill Land, near Vienna, Illinois. 



Soil Treatment Applied 



1903 
Yields 



1904 
Yields 



1905 
Yields 



Wheat, Bushels per acre 

None 

Legume 

Legume, lime 

Legume, lime, phosphorus 

Legume, lime, phosphorus, potassium 

Corn, Bushels per acre. 

None 

Legume 

Legume, lime 

Legume, lime, phosphorus 

Legume, lime, phosphorus, potassium 






7 


I 


7 


I 


10 


8 


15 


11 


18 



I 
II 

18 
26 
30 



9 


3i 


5 


. 36 


8 


49 


7 


49 


11 


45 



38 

43 
62 

57 
57 



The year 1903 was a very poor season for both corn and wheat. 
It will be seen that lime and legumes (cow peas or clover) have 
very great power to improve this class of soils. 

As yet the addition of phosphorus and potassium has not in- 
creased the corn yields, although with wheat phosphorus has given 
a marked increase and potassium some further gain, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that these two best treated plot series were naturally 
slightly less productive than the other three series. With more 
organic matter the effect of applied potassium will probably dis- 
appear. 

Soils Deficient in Phosphorus — Phosphorus is the element of 
plant food most likely to' be deficient in the common gently rolling 
prairie or upland timber soils of Central United States, as in Illinois, 
Indiana, and Ohio. Phosphorus is also commonly found to be the 
most deficient plant food in most long cultivated soils in Eastern 
and Southern United States. 

The total amount of phosphorus contained in the surface seven 
inches of the commonest type of soil in the Illinois corn belt is no 
more than would be required for fifty crops of corn of 100 bushels 
each, or for about seventy such crops if the grain only were re- 
moved from the land. The next soil stratum is poorer in phos- 
phorus than the surface soil and even a rich subsoil is of little 
value when buried beneath a worn out surface. 

The common so-called worn out soil of Southern Illinois con- 
tains but little more than half as much phosphorus as the corn belt 
soil. If clover failure is becoming more frequent than formerly 
on Illinois soils it is one of the strong evidences of insufficient phos- 
phorus. 

The results obtained from the Lmiversity of Illinois Soil Experi- 
ment Field near Bloomington, Illinois, on the typical slightly roll- 
ing prairie land of the Central Illinois corn belt will serve to dem- 
onstrate that phosphorus is the element which limits crop yields on 
soils of this character, notwithstanding the fact that this soil is 
valued at not less than $150 an acre and is still producing very 
profitable crops even for land of that valuation. 



no 



FARM SCIENCE. 



Crop Yields in Soil Experiments. 
Typical Corn Belt Prairie Soil, near Bloomington, Illinois. 



Plant Food Applied 



1903 


1904 


Corn 


Oats 


Bushels 


Bushels 



1905 
Wheat 
Bushels 



None 

Nitrogen. . . 
Phosphorus 
Potassium. . 



60 
60 

73 
56 



61 

70 

73 
63 



29 

3i 
39 
33 



Nitrogen, phosphorus 

Nitrogen, potassium 

Phosphorus, potassium 

Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. 



78 


85 


59 


66 


75 


70 


81 


91 



51 
30 

38 

52 



Gain for phosphorus when added to nitrogen 



18 



15 



20 



It will be seen that the addition of nitrogen or potassium, sep- 
arately or together, produces little benefit and sometimes the effect 
is a decrease in yield, although nitrogen did appreciably increase 
the yield of oats in 1904. After phosphorus has been applied then 
nitrogen can be utilized with marked benefit. 

Phosphorus produced a large increase in each crop even when 
applied alone, but when applied after nitrogen the increase was 
exceedingly marked, amounting to eighteen bushels increase in corn, 
fifteen in oats, and twenty bushels increase in the yield of wheat. 
While nitrogen was applied in commercial form (dried blood) in 
these experiments, these results emphasize the very great import- 
ance of using phosphorus in connection with clover and farm 
manure for improving this soil. The possible effect of phosphorus 
on the clover crop itself may be seen in the results obtained in 
1905 on the University of Illinois soil experiment field at Urbana, 
Illinois, which is also situated on good Illinois prairie soil. By 
"legume" treatment is meant the growing of a catch crop of cow 
peas or clover in the corn when it is "laid by." 

Crop Yields in Soil Experiments. 
Typical Corn Belt Prairie Soil, near Urbana, Illinois. 



Soil 


Three years 


' average 


Plot 


before treatment. 


No. 


Corn, bushels 


20I 


60 1 






202 


64 




Av. 


203 


63 


c 


61.8 


204 


6l 




Bu. 


205 


61 . 






206 


64 1 






207 


62 




Av. 


208 


58 


>- 


61 .4 


209 


6l 




Bu. 


2IO 


62 







Soil Treatment Applied 



None 

Legume 

None 

Legume, lime. 
Lime 



Legume, lime, phosphorus 

Lime, phosphorus 

Legume, lime, phos. , potassium 
Lime, phos., potassium 
Lime, phos., potassium 



1905 

Clover 

Tons per Acre 



I.26 
I. 21 

I. 15 

I.32 

I. 21 



Av. 
1.23 
Tons 



2.91 
2. 91 

3-19 
3-i9 
3-4i 



Av. 

3 12 

Tons 



It will be seen that previously to the beginning of this soil 
treatment the last five plots yielded no more than the first five, 
but after four years of soil treatment the yield of clover was only 



INCREASING FERTILITY. 



Ill 



1.23 tons without phosphorus, while 3.12 tons of well field-cured 
clover hay were produced where phosphorus had been applied. The 
effect of potassium was slight. 

Of course this increased crop of clover means a larger yield 
of corn to follow and both clover and corn mean more farm manure 
for further soil improvement or maintenance. 




CORN KING SPREADING A THICK COAT. 



Soils Deficient in Both Phosphorus and Lime Soils on 

which clover can not be grown successfully even before they are 
badly worn are usually acid and consequently deficient in lime, but 
as a matter of fact such soils are usually deficient in both lime and 
phosphorus. 

I he effect of lime and of lime and phosphorus in connection 
with legume treatment on the University of Illinois Soil Experi- 
ment Field near Odin, Illinois, will serve to demonstrate the 
need of both lime and phosphorus on such soils as are commonly 
called "clay land" which refuses to grow clover. 

Wheat Yields in Soil Experiments. 
Typical Wheat Belt Prairie Soil in "Egypt," near Odin, Illinois. 



Soil Treatment Applied 



None 

Legume 

Legume, lime 

Legume, lime, phosphorus 

Legume, lime, phosphorus, potassium 

Gain for legume, lime, phosphorus treatment. 



Yield per Acre 
Average of 
Three Years 



7 bu. 

9 bu. 

12 bu. 

23 bu. 

24 bu. 
16 bu. 



The treatment recommended for these soils, which are well 
representee by the extensive worn "clay lands" in Ohio, Indiana 
Southern Illinois ("Egypt"), and Missouri, is as follows: 

Apply 1. 000 to 2,000 pounds to the acre of finely ground natural 
rock phosphate with as much organic matter as possible (manure, 
legume catch crops, etc.) and plow under, then apply one to two 
tons to the acre of finely ground natural limestone and mix with 
the surface soil in preparing the seed bed, and then grow a good 
rotation of crops, such as corn, wheat, and clover; or corn, cow 



112 



FARM SCIENCE. 



peas, wheat, and clover ; or corn, cow peas, wheat, clover, wheat 
and pasture (clover and timothy being seeded with the second 
wheat crop for one or two years' meadow and pasture). At the 
end of the rotation another heavy application of rock phosphate 
should be made, preferably to the pasture ground in connection with 
all available farm manure and plowed under for corn. 

If necessary lime must be added occasionally to keep the soil 
sweet. (Blue litmus paper, which can be obtained from a drug 
store, if placed in contact with the moist soil for 20 minutes will 
be turned red if the soil is sour). 

The Value of Farm Manure — Farm manure always has been 
and probably always will be the most important and most abund- 
ant material for soil improvement. It is a necessary product on 
every farm and on stock farms a product which accumulates in 
very large amounts. If not used for soil improvement it becomes 
a worthless nuisance about the stables, whether in the city or in 
the countrv. 




INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY ENDLESS APRON MANURE SPREADER 
"CLOVERLEAF" BEFORE LOADING FOR THE FIELD. 

A conservative estimate places the annual production of farm 
manure in the United States at two billion tons. The actual 
agricultural value of fresh farm manure containing both the liquid 
and solid excrements is not less than $2 a ton, whether the value 
is measured in terms of plant food elements actually contained 
in the manure as determined by chemical analysis of the manure 
and the market values of the elements, or whether the value is 
measured by the actual increase in crop yields produced by the 
use of the manure on ordinary long cultivated soils. 

Waste of Farm Manure and Land Ruin. — If fresh farm 
manure is spread out and exposed to the weather for six months 
in summer, one-half of its total weight of dry matter is lost, and 
more than one-half of its value as a fertilizer is lost. In most 
newer countries there is enormous and shameful if not wicked 
waste of farm manure. In older countries it is the rule to save 
all possible farm manure with very great care, although this rule 
is too frequently broken by the careless, ignorant, or short sighted. 



INCREASING FERTILITY. 



113 



As a whole the unnecessary waste and loss of farm manure 
which occurs in the United States each year is equal in value to 
more than ten times the value of all commercial fertilizers used 
in this country. Sometimes the waste of farm manure and the 
purchase of commercial fertilizers occur upon the same farm. In 
such cases the commercial fertilizer used is usually an acid phos- 
phate, or a so-called "complete" fertilizer containing acid phosphate 
with a trace of nitrogen and potassium too small to add 
appreciably to 1 its value, and it is commonly applied in amounts 
which supply less plant food than the crops actually remove, the 
small amount of soluble plant food applied being supplemented 
by that which the soil would naturally give up, together with what 
can be forced from the soil by the stimulating action of the soluble 
corrosive acid salts and manufactured land plaster contained in 
such fertilizers. 

Saving Farm Manure — In order to retain the full amount and 
full value of farm manure, it should be removed directly from the 




ENDLESS APRON SPREADER 



CLOVERLEAF IN OPERATION. 



stall or covered feed lot and spread at once upon the land. Where 
the winters are moderately cold and free from heavy rains there 
is little loss if the manure is allowed to accumulate during such 
weather in a small uncovered feed lot, provided it is hauled out 
and spread upon the land in the early spring. Manure may be 
allowed to accumulate without much loss in deep stalls for several 
weeks if plenty of absorbent bedding is used, and then it may 
be hauled from the stall directly to the field and spread. 

It should be the rule never to handle manure more than once. 
When taken from the stable or feeding shed it should be at once 
loaded onto the spreader and hauled to the field. If manure is 
produced at the rate of two loads or more a week the convenience 
and importance of taking this manure directly from the stable and 
spreading it at once upon the field will certainly justify providing 
a manure spreader or special wagon to be used solely for this 
purpose. 

Increasing the Value of Farm Manure — While ordinary fresh 
farm manure is worth $2 a ton for use on ordinary soils, its value 



114 FARM SCIENCE. 



can easily be increased to $3 a ton net, by replacing in liberal 
amounts of low-priced natural rock phosphate, the element phos- 
phorus, which the animals have extracted from the feed and used 
in making bone, thus leaving the manure poor in phosphorus as 
compared with the crops grown and fed. 

It should be remembered that practically all potassium con- 
tained in the feed is returned in the liquid and solid excrements, 
and that the nitrogen, which is in part retained by the animal and 
in part returned in the manure, can be fully maintained by supple- 
menting the farm manure with clover grown in the crop rotations 
or as catch crops. 

By far the most complete and valuable work ever reported upon 
the subject of increasing the value of farm manure by the addition of 
natural rock phosphate has been done by the Ohio Agricultural 
Experiment Station under the direction of Professor Charles E. 
Thorne in an extensive and most trustworthy series of experiments 
extending over a period of nine years. 

As a rule for use on land which is deficient in phosphorus, rock 
phosphate should be mixed with average manure in such propor- 
tions that at least 250 pounds of rock phosphate per acre would be 
provided for each year. Thus for a four-year rotation, including 
corn for two years, oats for the third year and clover for the 
fourth year, about 1,000 pounds of rock phosphate an acre should 
be applied to the clover ground in connection with all available 
farm manure and plowed under for corn. If the land is ma- 
nured once in four years with ten loads of manure to the acre, 
then 100 pounds of rock phosphate should be applied with each load. 

A very simple and satisfactory method of applying rock phos- 
phate to the land, which involves practically no extra labor or 
loss of time, is to load the manure spreader part full of manure, 
then scatter 100 pounds of rock phosphate over it as uniformly as 
possible, finish loading, and drive to the field and spread the phos- 
phated manure. This brings about a very complete and intimate 
mixture of the manure and rock phosphate and this is exceedingly 
important because the decaying organic matter must be in inti- 
mate contact with the rock phosphate in order to liberate the 
phosphorus for the use of the crops. 

A System of Permanent Agriculture. — This practice of apply- 
ing liberal amounts of natural rock phosphate in connection with 
all of the farm manure which can be made on the farm from the 
hay, straw, and other coarse products and from the oats or other 
low-priced grains, together with the use of a good rotation, includ- 
ing plenty of clover, provides for an absolutely permanent sys- 
tem of agriculture, even though high-priced grains and animal 
products are sold from the farm. It is a system under which 
the land grows richer and richer and more and more productive 
and valuable, instead of becoming poorer and less productive as 
has been the case with by far the larger part of the older culti- 
vated lands in the United States. 

Cyril G. Hopkins, 
Prof, of Agronomy, Illinois College of Agriculture, 

Urbana, 111. 



Power on the Farm 

GAS ENGINES— THEIR PRESENT FARM USE AND 

POSSIBILITIES. 



By Fred R. Crane 




LD Powers Proving Insufficient. — The power 
necessary to operate modern farm machinery is 
receiving no small amount of consideration at the 
hands of those who are making a deep study of 
the practical side of farm life. 

The farmer who would better his conditions 
is now looking for some power which will make 
the farm work lighter and at the same time give 
increased cash returns. 

The old tread mill he has discarded as a ma- 
chine into which no humane person would lead a 
horse. 

The sweep mill is unsatisfactory in that it is unsteady and re- 
quires constant attention. 

The wind mill is a small power, unsuited to operate heavy 
machines and is unreliable in the majority of places, although on the 
smaller farms where a limited amount of water is used and where 
large storage tanks are possible, they are giving general satisfac- 
tion. 

Gasoline Engine as Farm Power — The gasoline engine is 
now prominently before the agricultural people as a farm power, 
and the experiences of the writer have led him to the conclusion 
that the gasoline engine is to be recognized as a power on which 
the farmer can depend, and that there is money in such an invest- 
ment where he has work for it to do. This article is written with 
this thought in mind and in the hopes that the gasoline engine may 
be widely introduced into the farming districts. 

"Failure to do its duty," need never be put down against a 
thoroughly well built gasoline engine of the standard four-cycle- 
makes now on the market. It can be depended upon to work at all 
times if sensible management is used in the care of its parts. The 
conditions in many instances go to prove that many troubles of the 
amateur operator are not engine troubles, but are probably due to 
the fact that the operator has succeeded in using a wrench or some 
other tool intended never to fall into his hands. 

Powers Various Lines Demand. — For pumping and running 
the smaller machines, possibly including a small feed grinder, a 
power ranging from 2 h. p. to 5 h. p. will answer the purpose 
according to the needs. For the larger grinders, feed cutters, etc., 
8 h. p. to 12 h. p. will give results. 

Larger powers are needed in many instances and any purchaser 
may well accept the judgment of an expert coming from a trust- 
worthy firm. No manufacturing company of any standing will rec- 
ommend an engine of too little capacity, as it is to its advantage 
to have any power plant, in which its engine is the life of that 
plant, run smoothly. 



116 



FARM SCIENCE. 



An electric lighting plant for farm use is a coming thing; in 
some places electric lighting plants have been established and there 
is no question as to their success. The future will see much devel- 
opment along this line of farm lighting systems. The gasoline en- 
gine was first used on the farm as a substitute for the unreliable 
windmill and at once the practical fellow found other things for it 
to do. 

In this he is helped by the wide range of machines used on the 
farm. These may be divided into three classes. 

(i) Those which do not require a larger power than that 
which a man could exert. 

(2) Machines which require more than a man power in their 
operation. 

(3) Special machines, such as spraying outfits and lighting 
systems for the farm. 

In the first class are found the pump, the saw, washing ma- 
chine, cream separator, churn, grindstone, drill press, small lathe, 




CONVENIENT ARRANGEMENT FOR OPERATING FARM MACHINE. 

etc. In the second class come the feed grinder, feed and ensilage 
cutters, shredders, threshing machines, corn shellers, etc. 

Many a farm can now have a power house centrally situated 
and by putting up a line shaft in connection with a gasoline engine, 
a number of machines can be run at one time. This is probably the 
most satisfactory system of employing power. 

Question of Engine's Size — The size of an engine to buy is a 
question which we should consider, taking careful thought as to 
die amount of work you may wish the engine to do at any one 
time. Future needs must not be forgotten ; many a purchaser has 
used his engine for a time only to find that he has much other 
work which he would do with it had it sufficient power. 

It is poor economy to load any machine beyond its limit, and one 
who is about to buy an engine should consider the total horse 
power needed and then before buying add 33 1-3 % to that power, 
remembering that in loading a machine to its capacity or even close 
to it, you are exerting a strain which quite materially shortens the 
life of the engine and makes necessary constant adjustment. 



POWER ON THE FARM. 117 



Types of Engines on the Market — There are two types of 
engines now on the market, — 2-cycle, and 4-cycle. We will pass 
over the 2-cycle and confine our attention to the 4-cycle engine as 
the writer feels that the 4-cycle principle will give better results 
in the farm work. 

To show more clearly why preference is here given the 4- 
cycle engine, it would be well to say a few words as to why the 
2-cycle engine is not further discussed. 

The 4-cycle type of engine gains an impulse during two com- 
plete revolutions of the fly wheel, and should have a larger cylinder 
in order to obtain a power equivalent to that of the 2-cycle ; also 
heavier fly wheels must be used. However, the control of the 
mixture, the cleaning of the cylinder of the 4-cycle engine on the 
idle stroke, and a reduction of chance of leakage give this type 
the advantage. 

The 2-cycle engine must have a separate compression cham- 
ber, and here leakage may occur causing poor combustion of the 
mixture, and a great reduction of efficiency. 

Superiority of 4-Cycle Type.—Economy and ease of regula- 
tion demonstrate the superiority of the 4-cycle type. In this type 
of engine one should master the working principles as follows : 

1st cycle. — Charging: — In this act the piston starts from the front of the 
cylinder, moving outward as far as the stroke will allow; the sas and air 
mixture is drawn in by suction through the intake valve, and the fiv 
wheels have executed a one-half revolution. 

and cycle, — Compressing: — In this act the piston moves back into the cylinder 
as far as the stroke will allow; the mixture has now been compressed 
into a small clearance or dead air space around some method of ignition; 
the intake and exhaust have been shut during this movement, and the fly 
wheels have executed a second half revolution. 

3rd cycle, — Discharging: — In this act the charge is ignited and the resulting 
explosion is the power which drives the piston outward again as far as the 
stroke allows: the intake and exhaust valves have been shut during this 
movement, and the fly wheels have made a third half revolution. 

4th cycle, — Cleaning: — In this act the cylinder is cleaned of the charge by the 
exhaust valve opening and the piston moving back into the cylinder as far 
as allowed, forcing out the burned charge; the fly wheels have now made 
a fourth half revolution. 

Following closely this explanation, one notices that the fly 
wheels make two complete revolutions for each time the engine 
may receive power from the fired charge of gasoline, and observes 
further the movement of the piston and the time of opening and 
closing the intake and exhaust valves. 

The understanding of the parts, as outlined, the office of each, 
and a thorough knowledge of the working principles of the 4-cycle 
engine as described, will give the operator all the information 
needed to operate successfully the gasoline engine under all cir- 
cumstances. 

Parts of Gasoline Engine — Before attempting to operate a 
gasoline engine one should know the parts and the manner in 
which they operate. An expert can explain in a short time these 
parts so that one can have a clear idea of them. 

Some men are of a mechanical bent and master the engine in 
going once over the operating principles. Others may take to them 
slowly, but as far as understanding and successfully operating the 
gasoline engine, the person of average ability need have no fears. 



118 



FARM SCIENCE. 



The purchaser should insist on an explanation of all parts and not 
release the expert until they are thoroughly explained to him. 

By reference to the diagram Fig. I and Fig. II and outline one 
can quickly locate the parts, as follows : 

ENGINE OUTLINE, FIG. I-FIG. II. 

Air Supply for Gasoline Mixture. 

Sparking, "make and break method." 

Piston. 

Steel Piston Rings. 

Crank Shaft. 

Exhaust Rod. 

Needle Valve. 

Belt Pulley. 

Intake Valve Port. 

Exhaust Valve Port. 

Connecting Rod. 

Work for Stationary Engine — When the work for which the 
engine is needed is so situated that the engine need not be moved, 
a stationary engine should be bought and placed apart by itself, 
but above all, never locate a gasoline engine where there is lack 



I. 


Engine Bed. 


12. 


2. 


Cylinder. 


13- 


3- 


Cylinder Head. 


14. 


4- 


Fly Wheels. 


15. 


=>. 


Crank Shaft Boxes. 


16. 


6. 


Water Jacket. 


17. 


7- 


Outlet Water Pipe. 


18. 


8. 


Inlet Water Pipe. 


19. 


Q. 


Pipe from Gasoline Tank. 


20. 


10. 


Gasoline Pump. 


21. 


11. 


Overflow Tank at Mixer. 


2.2. 




ENGINE EQUIPPED FOR TRANSPORTING. 

of light, in a damp basement or in any position which makes it 
hard to get at any part of it. 

As to a foundation, do not believe that this is unimportant and 
that an engine can be set on "any old foundation." The best work 
is done by an engine when held rigid, in fact a gasoline engine 
needs a better and a stronger foundation than a steam engine of 
the same horse power. This is particularly noticeable in the engine 
the cylinder of which is horizontal, and the fact that the foundation 
must be strong is no disparagement of a gasoline engine. 

When Portable Engine is Necessary — When the work is in 
several places widely separated, as previously mentioned, a portable 
engine becomes necessary. This is generally one mounted on 
wheels. The ordinary stationary engine can be loaded on skids or 
shoes. These are then drawn from place to place as desired. This 
system of using the gasoline engine as a power is thoroughly prac- 
tical. 



POWER ON THE FARM. 



119 



^ t^^ V""l"{""f^A^^V^V A^.A^^^ TO^ 




T 



fte.1 

S£"C riO* a* CfVC/»£ 

a. One A3 




od 





ff'C* 




H 



Scct/oi to S**rr 




120 FARM SCIENCE. 



Electric Ignition the Best — The electric ignition for firing the 
mixture within the cylinder may well be regarded as by far the 
most efficient method of effecting the explosion in the gasoline en- 
gines. The surety and nicety with which it can be controlled, give 
it an undeniable advantage. 

This requires a source of electric energy — the battery of cells, 
the auto-sparker or magneto. These will be described later in 
their application. 

The electric current as used may be compared to the race 
track, using the insulated copper wire to make a complete circuit, 
the current always trying to return to its starting point, and, unless 
so arranged there will be no passing of electricity. 

The insulation protects the wire, allowing no electricity to pass 
off only at the points where desired. 

Without insulation the current will be lost on the first metallic 
contact. The wire must be carried to the engine where the igni- 
tion is caused, either by the "MAKE-AND-BREAK" or the 
"JUMP- SPARK" method. 

The Make-and-Break Ignition — The make-and-break method 
of ignition, Fig. Ill, has leading through the cylinder walls to the inter- 
ior, two electrodes, one of which is well insulated, (A) , the other a 
movable one (B) and not insulated. The points of these elec- 
trodes are then arranged to make and break automatically the 
electric current as furnished. On breaking the contact the spark 
caused, fires the mixture. 

The time of firing requires careful adjustment and should occur 
just before the engine is on the dead center and near ; the end of 
the compression stroke. This gives the engine opportunity to get 
the full force of the explosion at the point of highest compression. 

When a vibrator is used with the spark coil, a series of sparks 
occur at the terminals within the cylinder each time the cam closes 
the primary coil circuit. 

Hot Tube Method of Ignition — The hot tube employed as a 
method of ignition is, in all modern engines, a small tube varying 
in length, approximately from 2V 2 inches to 6 inches. It may be 
y 2 inch in diameter or possibly less. This is then closed at one end 
and screwed into the cylinder head in such a manner as to open 
into the compression or dead air space. 

The tube is heated to a dazzling red by some exterior flame and 
on the compression cycle the charge is forced into the tube and 
against its red hot walls causing the mixture to fire. The length 
and diameter of the tube is such that the mixture is fired just before 
the point of highest compression, and the impulse is given the 
piston as the crank shaft passes over the center. 

The hot tube seldom fails to ignite the charge but the timing of 
the explosion can be changed only by changing the length, the 
diameter, or both, of the hot tube. 

The hot tube ignition is practiced with entire success, but the 
writer feels that there are other methods giving better results. 

Make-and-Break Method Preferable — Of the several meth- 
ods of ignition the make-and-break electric receives preference in 
the engine designed for farm work because of its simplicity, ease of 



POWER ON THE FARM. 121 



adjustment and the little attention needed. This is preferred to 
the jump-spark, because of the tendency of the vibrator, when used 
in the jump-spark coil, to get out of order, and the difficulty in 
obtaining perfect insulation in the spark plug, which is a particu- 
larly delicate part. The points of the electrodes on the jump-spark 
plug become over-heated, break or become foul by deposits or ref- 
use, and no spark will pass the space thus closed. This then en- 
tails great care of the spark plug and vibrator, — care, such that the 
average beginner would have some trouble should anything go 
wrong. 

Need of Strong Battery Current.— The battery is much used 
to furnish the current which is the vital principle in electric igni- 
tion. This battery may be composed of dry cells with electricity 
stored which will furnish a current until the spark becomes too 
weak to fire the charge. 

A weak electric current causes much trouble by non-firing. 
There is a feeling that for stationary use the wet cells are pre- 
ferred for the farm engine, although in a portable or traction power 
the dry cell is best. One of the best types of wet cells is made of 
carbon and zinc plates immersed in a solution of, water 3 quarts 
and potash 1 pound ; over the surface of the material, which is con- 
tained in a porcelain can, a layer of paraffin oil about l / 2 inch deep 
is spread. This prevents evaporation. 

Five of these wet cells, with the primary Ruhmkorff coil, are 
used in a circuit when the make-and-break contact within the cylin- 
der is used. 

Dry cells give splendid results and are satisfactory in case the 
operator will discard the run down cells for new ones as soon as 
the current shows weakness. 

Troubles Traceable to Battery — Most of the troubles arising 
with the electric ignition can be traced directly to the battery. Only 
first class batteries should be used and they should not be ex- 
pected to last forever without renewing. When dry batteries are 
employed, replace them with new. 

In the wet cells, replace any worn out parts and put in a new 
mixture. 

The battery cells are comparable to so many pails of water, 
in each of which there are so many drops of water, and, when used, 
they must be renewed. 

High speed engines will use the battery faster than slow speed 
ones, and the size of the engine will make no difference with the 
size of the spark needed or in the life of the battery. 

Just what the life of a battery should be, will depend on the 
duration of the contact and the hours of use of the engine. One 
thing, however, is sure, that to leave the battery turned on over 
night, or while the engine is idle, will, if the contact is made, run down 
a battery more than months of steady use of the engine. Many an 
operator ruins a battery by leaving the switch closed over night. 

The Auto-Sparker Current — The auto-sparker for electric 
ignition, is a favorite method with the modern engines. A battery 
is needed in starting the engine, but is at once shut off, and can be 
used almost indefinitely when kept dry. 



122 



FARM SCIENCE. 



The reason for the limited use of this method is due more to 
the limited knowledge of the purchaser and to a feeling that he can 
get along with the battery. However, when once the operator has 
used the auto-sparker, he will hesitate to go back to the battery. 

Remarks on Electric Ignition — Electric ignition troubles are 
generally much magnified, and they are due to abuse resulting from 
ignorance. Many an operator feels that knowledge of electricity 
sufficient to understand thoroughly the electric ignition as applied 
to gas engines, is far beyond his powers of comprehension. In 
that, he is much mistaken. It is a simple, plain process and easy 
of grasp. 

A current of sufficient strength fed by either a battery or a 
dynamo passes over the coil as mentioned elsewhere in this article. 
The core of this coil is soft iron and becomes instantly highly 
magnetized. It acts as a storage tank for the electricity, filling abso- 
lutely full, the surplus fairly bursting to get out. 




VERTICAL ENGINE SAWING WOOD. 

When the current is broken at the separation of the ignitor 
points, the pressure of the electric current is at once shut off, and 
the magnetized core must immediately unload. 

The current is then crowded upon the coil of wire which is 
the nearest conductor. The core of soft iron must return to its 
former unmagnetized state, and, in so doing, forces a strong cur- 
rent back on the coil of wire. Running along this, it comes to the 
break or separated electrodes, and, in its efforts to connect, it 
bridges the space, tumbling off into the gap, resulting in a flash of 
fire, the strength of which depends upon the strength of the origi- 
nal current. 

Things Operator Should Know — The operator who will mas- 
ter the few principles here mentioned will soon be able to locate 
and correct any trouble with the engine arising from the electric 
ignition. 

ist. There is a source of electricity, either the battery, auto- 
sparker or magneto. 

2nd. A circuit through the engine, either directly or indirectly, 
to the electrodes. 



POWER ON THE FARM. 123 



3rd. The spark coil connections. 

4th. The automatic arrangement which makes and breaks the 
current. 

Methods of Cooling Cylinder — The water cooling system is 
probably the best one to employ, — the disadvantage being, the freez- 
ing during winter weather which cracks the jacket. 

By the addition of chemicals to lower the freezing point, this 
difficulty is somewhat lessened. In using the chemicals the operator 
should notice at times whether any deposit occur in the passages 
which must be kept open. Another method of prevention of freez- 
ing is, the use of glycerine and water mixed, one part of glycerine 
to three of water. This is costly and none of these methods where 
any water is used, will be absolute proof against freezing, although 
they often protect a cylinder from cracking. 

The only sure way is to drain all parts of the engine and 
cooler apparatus when not in use during winter weather. 

The water cooling method is used in the great majority of 
engines, and is to be recommended in the gas engine for the farmer. 

Things That Need Attention — It is a common remark that a 
gasoline engine needs no attention. This is true to the extent that 
if the engine is running properly and the supply of fuel and lubri- 
cating oil is adjusted, the operator is free to leave the engine. It 
is generally the case that the engine needs no attention while at 
work, but there are slight adjustments, and the cleaning of the en- 
gine, to which attention must be given after each run, and without 
which the efficiency is much cut down. 

Before discussing the care and management of the vital parts 
of the engine, it is well to lay down the rules to be followed in 
starting and stopping. 

Process of Starting Engine — If the electric method is used, 
trace the current through its entire circuit and, after all connections 
are made, connect direct across from the outside of one electrode 
to the outside of the other, making sure they are not touching 
within the cylinder. A bright spark should jump as we break the 
outside connection. 

Then connect the electrodes within and if we get no spark from 
without when breaking the cross connection, we are reasonably sure 
that the ignition is satisfactory. Examine all oilers, drip or other- 
wise, and be certain that they are working properly. It is good 
practice to drop a little coal oil upon the stem of each valve before 
starting. 

If the hot tube ignition is used, the burner should first be 
lighted and regulated so as to burn correctly, throwing a blue flame 
upon the tube. During the few minutes necessary to heat the tube 
to a dazzling red heat, and ready to use, one can attend to the other 
preliminaries. 

Be certain that the water is circulating through the jacket; in 
case a cooling tank is used which depends upon the gravity method, 
the water must stand above the pipe leading from the jacket. 

After examining the lubrication, turn the engine piston to the 
starting point which is at the beginning of the explosion cycle. 

Thus far the steps are the same for all gas engines ; each en- 
gine has its own method of charging and the operator is cautioned 



124 



FARM SCIENCE. 



to follow carefully the rules laid down by the manufacturer, in the 
interest of safety, and under no circumstances to place his foot on 
the spoke of a fly wheel in the starting operation. 

As soon as the engine is started, regulate the throttle to the 
proper mixture of gasoline and air and notice the governor that 
there may be no possibility of racing, caused by a failure to work 
on the part of the governing device. 

How to Stop the Engine — Shut off the supply of gasoline by 
closing the needle valve tight. 

Turn off the battery, or, if the hot tube is used, shut off the 
burner which heats it. 

Stop all lubrication which does not close automatically. Notice 
carefully all bearings if worn or hot. 

Wipe the engine ready for the next run and fill the oilers. 

If in winter, drain the water jacket and all parts which freezing 
would in any way injure. 




THRESHING SCENE. 



Some Points on Lubrication.— Lubrication of the working 
parts of the gasoline engine is of course of much trouble to the in- 
experienced operator when it comes to the cylinder. 

For cylinder lubrication, use the best grade of gas engine oil 
sold by the oil manufacturers. This oil is a high grade article and 
will stand against the great heat evolved within the cylinder of all 
explosive engines, maintaining a perfect lubrication. The cylinder 
oil recommended for this purpose is a light mineral oil, having a 
flash point of not less than 360 degrees Fah. and a fire test of 420 
degrees Fah. 

If waste oil filtered is used, this oil must not again be employed 
for cylinder lubrication. 

If too much oil is allowed to feed through the oiler into the 
cylinder, or rather onto the surface of the piston, the surplus will 
cause fouling within the cylinder. This is followed by deposits on 
the valve seats and gumming of the piston rings, which means lost 
compression and a reduction of power ; at times it causes a short 
circuit by connecting the separated electrodes. 



POWER ON THE FARM. 125 



If too little oil is fed down, the piston becomes dry on its 
wearing surface, and, while extra wear will occur, it often happens 
that the heat generated will expand the piston until it sticks in the 
cylinder. 

An engine will soon give trouble where there is an incorrect 
adjustment in the supply of lubrication, be it too little or too' great. 

If too much oil is used, the exhaust will show a thick, heavy, 
gray smoke ; if too little oil is used, there will be a barking sound 
at the free end of the cylinder, caused by the leakage of the mix- 
ture by the piston rings. 

The wrist pin within the piston is subject to heat, such, that it, 
also, must be oiled by the high grade oil. Constant lubrication at 
this point is difficult and rapid wear is generally the case. Here 
is where the beginner often gets into trouble which can be avoided 
if given attention. 

Hard oilers are used very successfully on other parts of the 
engine and are to be recommended. 

When Engine is Working Well — If the engine is working in 
a correct manner, this is apparent at once and there is no knocking 
or pounding, either within the cylinder or in any of its bearings. 
The piston should work true, without leakage and well oiled. There 
should be no color to the escaping exhaust and a marked regularity 
should be noticeable throughout the engine. 

The piston should be examined occasionally, possibly to the 
extent of uncoupling the piston rod from the crank shaft and with- 
drawing it from the cylinder. 

This should be done when there is sticking of the piston or 
excessive leakage of the mixture past the rings. If the piston is 
black and gummy, it is due to a free use of lubricating oil and to 
imperfect combustion. Wash thoroughly with coal oil and carefully 
clean around each ring, then fit each ring in its proper place. Clean 
all foul material from within the cylinder and, before returning 
the piston, carefully oil the walls of the cylinder and sides of the 
piston. 

When the Valves Give Trouble — The valves give trouble only 
when fouled or worn in their adjustments. If fouling occurs, this 
is noticeable in a loss of compression. To locate this, turn the 
piston on the compression stroke and listen at the valve stem for 
the sound of escaping gas. When this escape is apparent, it is 
necessary to grind the valve scat and valve by placing a little fine 
emery mixed with oil on the valve seat, then lower the valve upon 
it, having previously loosened the spring so that the valve is free. 
With a brace and bit fitted as a screw driver point set on the 
valve, and turn until a bright surface appears all the way around 
the valve seat in the casting and on the valve itself. Work the 
valves until the seats are true, then wipe entirely clean. 

A little emery dust escaping to the walls of the cylinder will cut 
into the wearing surfaces of the piston and cylinder and cause much 
trouble. In view of the carelessness sometimes exhibited, it has been 
suggested by some that pumice stone be used in place of emery, 
but if a reasonable amount of care be exercised in the cleaning, there 
is little danger. 

Readjustment of Valve Gearing — Troubles often arise with 
the time of opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves, 
due to the wearing of the levers, cams, etc., and is noticeable in a 



126 



FARM SCIENCE. 



retarded action of the valves in opening and closing early. This 
causes an improper mixture and a loss of efficiency. 

The remedy is a readjustment of the valve gearing, especially 
is this true in the high speed engines, where the exhaust valve 
begins to open at a point about 40 degrees past the dead center, 
and closes on the dead center. 

The intake valve, when operated entirely by suction, has a 
spring strong enough to hold the valve in place until the engine 
has passed the center about 25 degrees, and remains open during 
the operation of the suction force, closing on the dead center. 

Exhaust a Good Indicator — The exhaust has a sound, by 
which the experienced operator soon learns to tell when the engine 
is or is not doing its work correctly. He needs only to be near 
enough to' hear the sound of the exhaust, and the ear will at 
once tell if the engine is in trouble. 

If at any time a black smoke is thrown through the exhaust, 
it shows too great a feed of gasoline causing an improper mix- 




ENGINE AT WORK IN A SAW MILL. 



ture, and an improper combustion as a result; if, however, the 
smoke is a dense light gray, then, as has been stated before, the 
cylinder lubrication is wrong, and should receive attention. 

An improper mixture will often not be fired and with the 
exhaust will pass over into the muffler pot. When this occurs, 
the charge will often be fired in the muffler, causing a barking 
noise which is not dangerous, but denotes faulty firing, generally 
due to an insufficient supply of gasoline in the mixture. 

This firing in the exhaust pot has given rise to the saying 
"She is barking for more fuel," and can be remedied by open- 
ing wider the throttle allowing more gasoline to pass in with 
the mixture. 

Causes of Trouble and the Remedy — Troubles come from 
many minor causes and may give rise to the feeling that the 
gasoline engine is not to be trusted. 

Often in attempting to start the engine, there is complete 
failure. When this occurs, look over the several working parts 
and trace each part through its entire action. 

Turn the piston on the compression stroke, as noted previ- 
ously, and look for lost compression. It is possible in a new 



POWER ON THE FARM. 127 



engine that the valves do not seat properly, locate the cause and 
apply a remedy, of grinding if necessary, or of adjusting the 
valve lever which may not allow the valve to fall down upon its 
seat. The binding of valve stems or bending caused in shipping 
will cause sticking and loss of compression. 

Imperfect Mixture Will Not Fire — Imperfect mixture of 
gasoline and air will not fire, and it sometimes becomes necessary 
to reduce the air inlet. In fact some engines are fitted with 
valves which partly close the air feed pipe, and the air is then 
drawn with greater force through the restricted opening, taking 
with it larger quantities of gasoline in the form of spray or 
gaseous vapor. This restriction of the intake pipe is often 
necessary in starting an engine and before it gets up to speed. 

Weak Spark — Test the Current — Poor ignition may be caused 
by weak batteries, or an imperfect wire connection in the battery. As 
remedy for this, test the current for intensity. If it gives what 
is known as a "fat" spark, all is well with it, but beware of the 
scattering weak one. 

See that wires are held firmly and that the insulation is not 
worn off causing a short circuit to exist. A short circuit will 
soon run down the best battery made. 

If the jump-spark is used and faulty ignition occurs, test all 
the batteries in the same way, then remove the plug and place it 
on some clean metal part of the engine where the secondary 
circuit is completed. If all is well, a bright spark will appear on 
closing the primary circuit and the vibrator will give its customary 
hum. which the operator should train himself to recognize. 

Fouling of Ignition Points — Deposits on the electrodes 
within the cylinder give trouble at times, generally due to excess- 
ive feeding of lubricating oil or too much gasoline in the firing 
mixture. To overcome this, clean the spark electrodes of all 
foul material, test them for perfect insulation, and remove the 
cause of fouling. 

What Causes Pre-Ignition — Premature ignition may occur 
from a faulty regulation of the ignition cam, or it may happen 
when excessive heat occurs on the internal parts of the engine. 
This last is caused by excessive loading, poor circulation _ of 
water in the cooler or by carbon deposits within retaining sufficient 
heat to fire the incoming charge. 

At times a back firing appears in the suction passage, and 
is generally due to a poor seating of the intake valve, or to an 
ignftion, caused during the suction period by white hot particles 
of refuse retained within the cylinder. 

To substantiate the assertion that excessive heat within the 
cylinder might cause pre-ignition, it might be well to explain that 
the temperature of any mixture is increased according to the de- 
gree of compression to which it is subjected and any proper mix- 
ture of gasoline and air might be compressed to such a degree 
as to raise it to the igniting point, causing firing from its own 
temperature. This is sure to take place on the compression 
stroke in any gas engine cylinder, where the constant burning of 
charges maintain a degree of heat not controlled absolutely by the 
cooling device. 

What to Do When Engine Pounds — Should knocking or 
pounding occur, look at once for one of the following causes : 
Pre-ignition; loose bearings at the wrist pin or at the crank 



128 FARM SCIENCE. 



shaft ; loose fly wheel ; leaking past the piston rings which ma}' 
be mistaken for pounding ; or broken piston ring. 

Loss of power is caused by insufficient lubrication, poor com- 
pression, poor mixture and an over-heated piston. 

Water Within the Cylinder — Water in the cylinder due to 
condensations at times, but generally because of leakage around 
the packing at the cylinder head, will cause loss of power and 
if not stopped, will shut down the engine. 

If air bubbles come up through the water pipe leading from 
the water jacket, one can be very sure of a leak in the packing, 
or if not there, it is directly through the walls of the cylinder 
where doubtless there is a flaw in the casting. 

Remedy these at once by repacking, or, if in the cylinder 
walls, call a machinist. This leakage through the walls is more 
likely to occur in cylinders which have been rebored, as a trust- 
worthy manufacturer will seldom put a faulty cylinder upon the 
market. 

Economy in a Gasoline Engine — The original cost of the 
gasoline engine as compared with other machines of equal horse 
power, is far in favor of gasoline as a power in farm work. 

The placing of the engine in position is a simple operation 
and a mechanic is not necessary to superintend the work. The 
strongest support which the gasoline engine receives from the 
users of this power lies in the great reduction in the cost of the 
engine's operation. 

Cost of Engine's Operation — When working the gasoline 
engine the price of one pint of gasoline would represent the cost 
to the user of each horse power used per hour, and it is reason- 
able to assume (from tests made by the writer) that should one 
use a small amount of power taken from a large engine, the 
cost of the power will not be materially increased over 
the cost of the same power taken from a smaller machine. In 
fact it should always be the practice never to ask of an engine 
all the power it is capable of producing. 

When ready to begin work the operator goes to his machine, 
switches in a battery and turns the fly wheel. The engine starts 
and in less than 60 seconds is up to full speed and ready to 
deliver its power in any quantity up to the limit. 

The engine requires no attention until ready to use, there is 
no half hour wait to get up steam, and no early rising for the 
operator When one wishes to stop for a few minutes the engine 
can be stopped and fuel is saved. 

Engine Factor of Farm Economy — The operator of an 
engine is tree to work at something else, as the only time the 
engine needs his attention is in starting and stopping and then 
for less than one minute each time. When the engine is idle the 
operator pays nothing for use of the machine and it does not de- 
crease in value. 

Taking into consideration the original cost, the small space 
in which it can operate, the ease of management, and the great 
saving in the care of the gasoline engine, there is nothing more 
sure than that, at the present time, the gasoline engine as a farm 
power has no equal and will have none for a number of years 
to come. Fred R. Crane, 

Professor of Farm Mechanics, 
Illinois College of Agriculture, Urbana, 111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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